ISLAMABAD, April 8: The government has finalized a five-year programme with the help of Japan to extend financial support to deserving students seeking higher education.

Official sources told Dawn that Japan had agreed to offer Rs600 million for undertaking a “Japanese Need Based Merit Scholarships for Pakistani University Students” to be supervised by the Higher Education Commission (HEC).

The programme (2005-2010) is aimed at assisting candidates in improving their economic conditions at the microeconomic level.

This would be the second programme of its kind. Earlier, under a USAID grant, the HEC had initiated a programme offering 1,000 scholarships in a couple of disciplines.

The Japan-assisted plan would provide equal opportunity for the talented students, who are incapable of meeting cost of education in the leading higher education institutions.

This programme will help in poverty alleviation by providing grooming and learning opportunities for the middle and lower middle class students. It would also help create better job and business opportunities to them after completing their education.

Initially, 1,500 applicants, who are unable to enter higher education due to financial constraints, will be offered the scholarship in five disciplines, including business administration, IT and telecommunication, engineering, social sciences, basic sciences and agriculture & natural sciences.

The programme will be managed independently by universities, with the HEC taking the role of the official governing body responsible for managing the initial allocation of funds, distributing them to the universities; and selection of candidates in consultation with the universities.