USAID scholarship: Alumni comes together for reunion

KARACHI: A reunion of around 550United States Agency for International Development US AID scholarship programme alumni, belonging to Sindh, was held at Governor House on Monday.

The Higher Education Commission (HEC) and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) jointly organised the ceremony. Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan chaired the event.

“United States has always contributed in socio-economic development of Pakistan including health, education, agriculture, and economy and finance sectors,” said Dr Ebad in his speech and lauded the combined efforts of HEC and USAID.

The objective of the event was to celebrate the successful collaboration between the HEC and USAID which had benefited students from four higher education institutions of Sindh.

The HEC chairperson Dr Javaid Laghari said that the initiative supported the students to continue their higher studies in the disciplines of business administration and agriculture at the leading institutions of Sindh.

US Consulate General Michael Dodman explained that the merit based scholarship program was initiated in 2004 in the universities across Pakistan that not only financed meritorious but also students that faced financial constraints.

Michael further expressed that the US realised the importance of mutual efforts (between Pakistan and the US) for development in Pakistan.

He announced that USAID is supporting HEC in establishing educational centres to build academia-industry-government linkages and address issues of national priority. “To achieve this, the HEC and USAID are establishing three ‘Centres for Advanced Studies’ in priority areas of water, agriculture and energy,” said Dodman, adding that the establishment of these centres would helpful in meeting the growing needs of Pakistan in these important areas.

Meanwhile, Dr Laghari also diverted the audience’s attention towards low education budget allocations and access to higher education in Pakistan as its current enrolment rate of 7.8 percent for the youth between ages 17 and 23 puts it in line with some sub-Saharan African countries.

The event was not limited to graduates, government officials, representatives of USAID, civil society, corporate sector and philanthropists also attended the event.