Students post queries at the Back to School Fair in Karachi. PHOTO: COURTESY US CONSULATE FACEBOOK PAGE
KARACHI:
Despite an unprecedented decline in the annual levels of enrolment of Pakistani students at United States colleges in the last two decades, US officials and educational institutes’ representatives asserted on Sunday that visa applications of nearly 100 per cent of qualified and legitimate students are approved.
With enrolment rates recorded at a meagre 4,600 students in the academic session 2011-12 as compared to more than 8,600 students in the year 2001-02 - the highest number in around two decades - Pakistan has also been pushed out of the list of the top 25 places of origin for foreign students.
While many students equate this downturn to strict visa procedures post- 9/11 attacks, Umair Khan, who deals with the United States Educational Foundation in Pakistan’s (USEFP) Fulbright outreach and educational advising programmes, does not agree.
“Following a noticeable dip post- 9/11, the visa procedures have been further eased and streamlined to qualify all legitimate students,” he told The Express Tribune during a ‘Back to School’ educational fair organised by the USEFP in collaboration with the US consulate at Avari Towers.
The fair brought together Pakistani students, parents and working professionals, and gave them a chance to meet representatives from over 25 American universities.
The representatives, comprising Pakistani alumni of universities and colleges, had had set up desks for Harvard, Columbia, Yale, Johns Hopkins, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, George Washington University, Indiana University, Mount Holyoke College and University of Utah, to name a few.
“Of around 4,900 universities in the US, people mostly know only about a handful and subsequently vie for them. So, we decided to arrange a fine assortment of 25 prestigious US universities for the information of Pakistani students,” said Khan.
“The aim was to impart the knowledge that there are plenty of educational opportunities as well as scholarship opportunities available if they wished to avail.”
Defining the USEFP’s role as an advisory body, he said, “Like before, the US embassy is still giving out open options to Pakistani students and lots of students are taking them up.” He said their advisory team comprising former Pakistani students at the US universities helped aspiring students.
US consulate public affairs officer Corina Sanders was on the same page as Khan. “The US has always been eager to increase educational opportunities for Pakistani students,” she told The Express Tribune.
For students’ relief
For a number of prospective students, the fair appeared to be a blessing. “Those who wish to go abroad for higher education often spend hours searching the internet and even pay thousands of rupees to agents to prepare their documents for the admission and visa procedure,” said Malahat Shafi, a business administration graduate at IBA. “Here, information about every American university is easily available.”
A telecom engineering student from Iqra University, Irfan Ali, said that he wanted to pursue a postgraduate degree from Indiana University because, in his opinion, engineering courses in Pakistan were not up-to-date at Masters level. “American universities are at the top in the quality of education and research.
They offer a good number of scholarships as well. With such a degree, I can contribute towards improving the situation of my country,” he explained his raison d’etre for going abroad.
Ali hoped that he would be able to qualify through what he termed “rigid requirements for the visa process.”
Published in The Express Tribune, September 24th, 2013.
COMMENTS (7)
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In the US, Pakistani doctors are at number three (behind only Indians and Filipinos) for the country with most international medical graduates practicing as doctors in the US.
If Pakistani students were given visa based on the conditions in their home country, we should have been next to Somali students. Given our country's state, I think it's a huge achievement and testament to the talent here that we still have such a visible presence in most Western universities and highly valued professions.
@bangash
That's the bitter truth. According to 80% of Pakistanis, particularly youngsters, USA and western world is anit-Pakistan and anti-Islam, yet they don't hesitate at all to move to these same places just to enjoy a higher standard of living that these states offer.
@nsk
No wonder universities around the world in Australia, Canada, USA are full of Indians. If Indian universities were so good, nobody in India would pay ten times as much to study abroad.
In Express Tribune comments section, everything is about India and Indians, even when the headlines have nothing remotely to do with India.
Its expensive to study in America or Europe and those countries are suffering from recession.
The prospect of getting jobs is getting dimmer for majority of students.
However, i do believe those from the top notch colleges like Columbia or NYU will have no issues in getting employment
None of these students are ever coming back to Pakistan.
While the visa procedure has improved and they do give visa to most of the students now, the processing time is generally something of a big concern. Some of my friends and I have experienced long delays in visa processing (>3 months), which made us to defer our admission to the next semester. The whole thing does get frustrating when you miss out on an opportunity just because of unnecessary delays. But eventually you do get the visa.
I think we should also be thinking of going to India, China and other South East Asian countries for further education. India has produced some of the best scientists, and doctors etc.. We are a nation that is American obsessed. Let's try to move on. Education is a big money making business for these Western nations.