Indigenous PhD scholarships: After website crash, HEC gives students till Aug 17 to apply

ISLAMABAD:

The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has extended the last date for receipt of applications for 5,000 indigenous PhD fellowships till August 17 after prospective applicants complained that the HEC website had crashed.

The last date has been extended on the request of candidates and their parents, said a statement issued by the HEC. The scholarships will be awarded for the academic year 2012-13 in all areas of study on a quota basis under the federal government’s quota policy.

The HEC has asked applicants who have submitted online forms under the scholarship scheme to fill in the missing mandatory information within the new timeframe so that their applications are be considered before the merit lists are drawn.

“This is the last time applicants are being facilitated. After the deadline expires, any incomplete online applications will not be considered for further processing,” the statement added.

HEC Media Manager Murtaza Noor said that apart from extending the last date, the website server has also been improved to address the problems created by the unusually heavy volume of traffic. “We had also extended the date previously to facilitate candidatures from far-flung areas,” he said.

The HEC website had become almost inaccessible the day of the original application deadline, August 7, with applicants complaining that they could not apply sooner as the GRE exam, a requirement to apply, was scheduled on August 5. However, the HEC still received over 15,000 applications.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 12^th, 2012.