New vistas: Scholars to pursue higher studies in Germany

They will be required to learn German on arrival.

ISLAMABAD:

Pakistani scholars about to travel to Germany for higher education received a warm send-off at the German embassy in Islamabad on Friday.

German Ambassador Dr Cyrill Nunn bid farewell to 79 Pakistani scholars, funded by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), according to a press release issued by the embassy.

The scholars will start their PhD research and masters’ degree programmes at German universities in the coming months.

DAAD has been actively supporting academic exchange between Pakistan and Germany for over 50 years. The HEC launched its own foreign scholarship programme in 2004, which also led to an increase in Pakistani students at German universities.

According to the embassy’s statement, nearly 500 Pakistani fellows in Germany received funding from the HEC or DAAD in 2012, whereas  Pakistani students at German universities numbered more than 2,000 during the same year.

“Pakistani students have a very good reputation in Germany,” Ambassador Nunn said on the occasion. “They are smart, hard-working and very successful.”

Nunn was joined at the farewell ceremony by director of the DAAD Office in Islamabad Ursula Saarbeck, head of the embassy’s cultural section Dr Dan Tidten, coordinator for cultural affairs at the German embassy Sobia Nazir and several alumni of German universities.

Addressing the scholars, Saarbeck said they had passed a very competitive selection process. “I am sure each of you will enhance people-to-people contacts between Pakistan and Germany,” she said.

Fifty-seven of the 79 scholars are PhD candidates funded by the HEC. The rest will be financed through DAAD Research Grants or DAAD Master’s degree programmes.

The embassy press release stated all the scholars would participate in an intensive German language course in Germany. The Pakistani scholars will study and conduct research in English but knowledge of German was essential for everyday communication in Germany, according to the press release.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 10^th, 2014.