Too little, too late? Sindh HEC to award 380 scholarships

Commission has approved 100 scholarships for MPhil, PhD students, 280 for undergraduate, MSc programmes

KARACHI: After seven years of establishment, the Sindh Higher Education Commission (SHEC) has at long last decided to grant approvals for research grants for the students of Sindh. However, out of millions of students studying in universities across the province, only 380 will be granted the coveted scholarships.

On the other hand, the monitoring and inspection fees for the degree-awarding institutes have increased by approximately 40 per cent, following a recommendation from the chairperson of Charter Inspection and Evaluation Committee.

It is for the first time that the commission will be awarding scholarships to undergraduate, MPhil and PhD students. However, according to sources, the commission has been unable to set a definite timeframe for the issuance of the said scholarships in its meetings. “The money from which the scholarships are to be awarded has not been made available to the Sindh HEC as yet but a summary has been forwarded to the Sindh government regarding the required expenses,” the source further informed The Express Tribune.

In one of its meetings, the commission approved the awarding of scholarships to a total of 380 students, out of which some 100 scholarships were reserved for MPhil and PhD students while the remaining 280 were for undergraduate students. “In total, Rs40 million is required for the indigenous scholarships, out of which Rs25 million is for PhD and MPhil scholarships and 15 million for undergraduate scholarships.”

USEFP offers fully funded scholarships for Pakistani students

As per sources, the Sindh HEC has decided to create software for the scholarship programme, which will not only allow students to apply online but will also help in screening and scrutinising the applicants.

The approval for the scholarships was given in a recently held meeting of the commission, which was chaired by Sindh HEC chairperson Dr Asim Husain. Other than the scholarships, the meeting also approved changing the name of Barret Hodgson University to Salem Habib University, the final approval for which will be granted by the Sindh Assembly under the amended act.

As per the information provided to The Express Tribune, the indigenous scholarship will allocate a total of Rs25 million for MPhil and PhD students from Sindh’s public as well as private universities, while Rs2 million has been reserved for expenses of the programme itself, with Rs230,000 reserved for each scholarship.

Similarly, Rs15 million have allocated for undergraduate scholarships, with Rs1 million reserved for project expenses. However, the 280 scholarships, worth Rs50,000 each, for MBBS, MSc and BSc will only be granted to students of public universities and remain unavailable to private universities.

On the other hand, approval for the proposal, presented by Charter Inspection and Evaluation Committee chairperson Qadir Rajput at a meeting of the Sindh HEC, has been granted. It is to be noted that the inspection of private universities is carried out every two years, according to which the universities in the province are ranked. Following the approval, the inspection fee for the province’s private universities has been increased by Rs80,000 putting it up to Rs300,000.

Furthermore, last year, the Charter Inspection and Evaluation Committee, under pressure, had to remove a private university’s name from the ranking because had the university been included, it would have topped the rankings, putting other universities in the lower tiers of the list.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 14^th, 2020.