October 17, 2003	Friday	Sha'aban 20, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Oct 16: The government will soon launch a Rs4.3 billion ‘Overseas Scholarship Scheme’ that aims at producing several thousands of postgraduate and doctorate degree holders in the engineering as well in other fields.

Officials said here on Thursday that the Higher Education Commission has submitted the scheme to the Planning Commission and the Ministry of Finance for approval. The project also includes foreign financing amounting to $70 million to be made available to the government.

The specific objective is to initially give scholarships to a total of 950 degree-holding candidates to study abroad in three batches, including 200 MS/M.Phil/PhD scholars in the first year, starting from January 2004, 200 in 2005, 300 in 2006 and 150 in 2007.

Students proceeding for MS(Eng)/M.Phil abroad are expected to obtain their Ph.D. degrees.

The HEC maintains that the national requirement is for several thousand postgraduate and doctorate degree holders. In addition, the industrial and the research and development sector of the country has a dire need of Ph.Ds to help place Pakistan on the map of modern economies.

The project is included in the long-term human resource development programmes/plans of the HEC.

It is believed that these foreign qualified academics and researchers would help improve the R&D potential of teaching and research institutions as well as training potentials of universities (public as well as private) besides feeding the industrial and entrepreneurial sectors.

Officials concerned had been told to help undertake the project as soon as possible to help improve the quality of education in the country.

It is estimated that about 25 per cent of the current faculty members hold Ph.D. degrees, universally considered to be an essential pre-requisite to impart quality education. It is understood that while the holding of Ph.D degree by faculty members does not guarantee quality, the lack of Ph.D degree does present a high barrier to sustained provisions of quality education.

According to the Higher Education Commission there are presently 46 public sector universities and degree-awarding institutions in Pakistan; out of which 30 are general universities/institutes with arrangements in teaching and research subjects at post graduates level; 16 are professional universities of which 9 are in engineering and the remaining in agricultural sciences.

However, a majority of these universities and institutes exist only in name since they have weak or non-existent research programme. The HEC, therefore, pleads that without an active research programme an institution of higher learning quickly stagnates and is not able to keep up with the fast paced development taking place in all areas.

The primary reason for this lack of research effort is lack of qualified faculty, since nearly three-quarters of the current faculty do not hold a Ph.D degree.

The problem, HEC officials say, becomes more acute if one takes into consideration that faculty members with Ph.D. degrees are retiring at an alarming rate.