ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan will award ‘Need-based Ehsaas Undergraduate Scholarships’ to the first batch of deserving students on March 2, Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Division announced on Friday.
This four-year, Rs24 billion initiative will support 200,000 students from low income backgrounds.
As part of the Ehsaas scholarship policy, 2pc scholarships will be exclusively awarded to students with special needs.
Overall, 50,000 scholarships will be given every year to enhance financial access to higher education for the deserving.
The continuation of scholarship in following years will depend upon the maintenance of academic performance.
The need and merit-based scholarship covers tuition fee as well as a living stipend.
Overall, 50,000 scholarships will be given every year to enhance financial access to higher education for the deserving
The prime objective of Ehsaas scholarships programme is to ensure that no eligible student is deprived of higher education because of financial need.
This programme is unique as it reflects a historic shift in scholarship policy of the government.
Unlike past scholarships that aimed at MS or PhD level programmes, this project specifically focuses on undergraduate education, which is the surest way of rising out of poverty.
Following the official launch of the Ehsaas undergraduate scholarships by the prime minister in November last, the Higher Education Commission’s online portal had been opened for applications till December last.
As many as 132,192 undergraduate students, among them 49,841 girls, applied for scholarships for the academic year 2019-20 under the first phase of the project.
All students from low-income backgrounds studying in undergraduate programmes across 119 public sector universities recognised by HEC were eligible to apply. Subsequently, the universities’ scholarship award committees made provisional decisions based on applications and documents received, and recommended them for ratification by the programme steering committee.
The provisional decisions were confirmed after formal ratification as well as follow up scrutiny, including income verification, verification of supporting documents and personal interviews by the scholarship award committee.
Reflecting on the significance of Ehsaas scholarships programme, Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation Dr Sania Nishtar said Pakistan had one of the youngest populations in the world and the government could not afford to waste the demographic dividend that was key to building a strong and sustainable economy.
“By offering the Ehsaas undergraduate scholarships to the deserving best and brightest minds across our country we are enriching the Pakistani workforce, encouraging diversity across all our professions and investing in the leaders of tomorrow,” she said.
“With 50pc girls’ inclusion in these scholarships, Pakistan will also benefit from the measures in this programme to tackle gender discrimination in education, which negatively impacts our nation’s health and economic growth,” Dr Nishtar said.
The project is being overseen by the Ehsaas Scholarships Steering Committee, co-chaired by Dr Nishtar and HEC chairman. As part of this shared initiative, a joint monitoring and evaluation framework has been set up to ensure that the programme is running in a transparent, equitable and accountable manner.
Published in Dawn, February 29th, 2020
