Cost of education: Students complain they were excluded from scholarships
Nearly 400 German, French scholarships exclude Sindh universities.
Nearly 400 German, French scholarships exclude Sindh universities. PHOTO: FILE
HYDERABAD:
The students and faculty members in Sindh universities are upset that the Higher Education Commission (HEC) has excluded them from foreign and indigenous scholarship programmes.
The Express Tribune has learnt that this new contention involves some 400 German and French scholarships and the Prime Minister’s Fee Reimbursement Scheme for Less Developed Areas. The former does not cover any university from Sindh while the latter has omitted the medical, engineering and general-subjects universities in Jamshoro and Karachi.
“It is a fact that since its inception, HEC has always discriminated against Sindh in terms of distribution of resources,” complained Dr Ahsan Memon, the general secretary of the Federation of All Pakistan Universities’ Academic Staff Association (Fapuasa). “Be it scholarships, research grants, travel grants or recurring and development budgets, the HEC has always neglected the public sector universities of Sindh.”
Foreign scholarships
Last month, the HEC announced 200 French and 200 German scholarships under its need-based scholarship programme. Both the undergraduate and postgraduate students from 10 selected universities from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Balochistan are covered under the two schemes. Not a single university from Sindh has, however, been included. “Such scholarships provide opportunities to the students to study in developed western countries, unlike the HEC scholarships which offer opportunities in less developed countries,” pointed out Dr Arshad Memon, who represents the teachers of Mehran University of Engineering and Technology (MUET).
According to him, the students prefer foreign scholarships to those offered by the HEC. “The HEC scholarships have many more strings attached, in term of guarantees and post-qualification service,” explained Shabbir Khuharo, a civil engineering lecturer at MUET. He said that only countries such as Brunei and Hong Kong are offering scholarships to students in Sindh along with the rest of Pakistan. “It would be great if some of the German and French scholarships are given to Sindh students.”
PM’s Reimbursement Scheme
Under the prime minister’s reimbursement scheme, the federal government will bear the complete cost of postgraduate education of the students who belong to the country’s less-developed areas. The deserving and poor students from Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan, FATA, South Punjab, Malakand, Kohistan and DI Khan areas of KP, as well as, rural Sindh qualify.
The HEC has included all the districts of Sindh in this list, except Karachi and Jamshoro, much to the dismay of the students of Jamshoro’s three universities. “I want to inform you that a majority of the students (about 95%) of rural Sindh are studying in MUET, Jamshoro,” read a letter written by MUET’s director for postgraduate studies Dr Khan Harijan. The letter was addressed to the executive director of the HEC, Prof Dr Mukhtar Ahmed.
The students at the Sindh University are particularly disturbed for being left out. “Some of us tried unsuccessfully to get the funding but we were told that Sindh University students are not covered,” said an MSC natural sciences student, Amir Wachuho. The university’s spokesperson, Majeed Panhwar, admitted the university has, so far, not raised an objection with the HEC. Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences, Jamshoro, deputy registrar, Dr Saroop Bhatia, said over 280 admissions this year, from a total of 350, were from these districts.
Meanwhile, the HEC officials were unavailable for comments. The Fapuasa has urged Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to take notice of HEC’s discrimination. Dr Memon informed that the association’s members from Sindh held a teleconference recently and demanded an independent inquiry of HEC’s scholarship programmes.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 3rd, 2014.
The students and faculty members in Sindh universities are upset that the Higher Education Commission (HEC) has excluded them from foreign and indigenous scholarship programmes.
The Express Tribune has learnt that this new contention involves some 400 German and French scholarships and the Prime Minister’s Fee Reimbursement Scheme for Less Developed Areas. The former does not cover any university from Sindh while the latter has omitted the medical, engineering and general-subjects universities in Jamshoro and Karachi.
“It is a fact that since its inception, HEC has always discriminated against Sindh in terms of distribution of resources,” complained Dr Ahsan Memon, the general secretary of the Federation of All Pakistan Universities’ Academic Staff Association (Fapuasa). “Be it scholarships, research grants, travel grants or recurring and development budgets, the HEC has always neglected the public sector universities of Sindh.”
Foreign scholarships
Last month, the HEC announced 200 French and 200 German scholarships under its need-based scholarship programme. Both the undergraduate and postgraduate students from 10 selected universities from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Balochistan are covered under the two schemes. Not a single university from Sindh has, however, been included. “Such scholarships provide opportunities to the students to study in developed western countries, unlike the HEC scholarships which offer opportunities in less developed countries,” pointed out Dr Arshad Memon, who represents the teachers of Mehran University of Engineering and Technology (MUET).
According to him, the students prefer foreign scholarships to those offered by the HEC. “The HEC scholarships have many more strings attached, in term of guarantees and post-qualification service,” explained Shabbir Khuharo, a civil engineering lecturer at MUET. He said that only countries such as Brunei and Hong Kong are offering scholarships to students in Sindh along with the rest of Pakistan. “It would be great if some of the German and French scholarships are given to Sindh students.”
PM’s Reimbursement Scheme
Under the prime minister’s reimbursement scheme, the federal government will bear the complete cost of postgraduate education of the students who belong to the country’s less-developed areas. The deserving and poor students from Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan, FATA, South Punjab, Malakand, Kohistan and DI Khan areas of KP, as well as, rural Sindh qualify.
The HEC has included all the districts of Sindh in this list, except Karachi and Jamshoro, much to the dismay of the students of Jamshoro’s three universities. “I want to inform you that a majority of the students (about 95%) of rural Sindh are studying in MUET, Jamshoro,” read a letter written by MUET’s director for postgraduate studies Dr Khan Harijan. The letter was addressed to the executive director of the HEC, Prof Dr Mukhtar Ahmed.
The students at the Sindh University are particularly disturbed for being left out. “Some of us tried unsuccessfully to get the funding but we were told that Sindh University students are not covered,” said an MSC natural sciences student, Amir Wachuho. The university’s spokesperson, Majeed Panhwar, admitted the university has, so far, not raised an objection with the HEC. Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences, Jamshoro, deputy registrar, Dr Saroop Bhatia, said over 280 admissions this year, from a total of 350, were from these districts.
Meanwhile, the HEC officials were unavailable for comments. The Fapuasa has urged Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to take notice of HEC’s discrimination. Dr Memon informed that the association’s members from Sindh held a teleconference recently and demanded an independent inquiry of HEC’s scholarship programmes.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 3rd, 2014.