ISLAMABAD, Sept 6: A record number of Higher Education Commission (HEC) scholars have been awarded scholarships to pursue Masters degree leading to Ph.D or direct Ph.D studies in prestigious Swedish universities.

Speaking at the HEC Scholarship award ceremony for doctoral studies in Sweden, here on Thursday the Executive Director HEC Dr Sohail H Naqvi said the nation had great expectations from Pakistani scholars who were being sent abroad particularly in developed countries to bring back the best from the host country interlaced with their own cultures, religion and moral values.

Dr Naqvi said that the nation was proud of the scholars who are being awarded the scholarships which have been given purely on merit in transparent manner.

He advised the scholars that being social ambassadors of Pakistan they should seek the higher education with dignity, higher standards of ethics and hard work.

Their attitude should also contribute towards the impression management of Pakistan as actions speak louder than words and HEC has full confidence in their conduct, behaviour and law abiding attitude which they should exhibit in the host country.

Earlier, Dr Syed Mehmood Raza, Adviser (HRD) HEC in his address of welcome informed the audience that the HEC, entering into the sixth years in the next five days has pursued a multi- pronged holistic strategy with a single focus of making Pakistani universities compatible with world class institutions to serve as the engine for the socio-economic development of the country.

Introducing the scheme Dr Raza said that till July 2007 their were only 21 HEC scholars studying at Swedish universities but in this academic session the HEC had arranged and conducted interviews through video conferencing of 537 short-listed applicants and awarded scholarship to 192 applicants for Masters degree leading to Ph.D. or directly for Ph.D. to be carried out at seven leading Swedish Universities.

Twenty scholars from the batch of 192 have already joined their respective universities in Sweden. Rest of the scholars are proceeding within the next 4-6 weeks.

He said that the HEC was grateful to the cooperation of the Swedish embassy in Pakistan in the issuance of visas in such a short period of time.