KARACHI: The two-day 19th Dawn Education Expo opened at a local hotel here on Saturday.

A golden opportunity for students interested in higher studies to speak to representatives of several local and foreign universities, the Dawn Education Expo is a collaborative and informative forum, fostering meaningful interactions and collaborations.

There were over 40 stalls representing mostly universities from Asia and Europe. There were several from the UK, Ireland, Germany, the UAE, Turkey and of course Pakistan offering advice and printed matter, including prospectuses.

There were also LED screens at the stalls displaying beautiful campuses and their breathtaking surroundings.

Most of the representatives of the universities present at the stalls were themselves graduates from there. The advice they imparted carried much weight.

Mohammad Raheel at the Istanbul Aydin University had an MBA from there.

He said that most students coming to him were interested in scholarships being offered by the university. “Pakistani students have a scholarship mindset but they should first take a good look at their grades to see if they are eligible for a scholarship,” he told Dawn.

Sharing his own example, he said that he did not initially have the grade point average (GPA) or percentages for any scholarship so he paid for tuition from his pocket at first, but things changed after his first semester when he really had the required grades. “That was when I actually applied for a scholarship and got it,” he said.

There were also several consultancy stalls offering just advice such as Study Advisor UK, JnS Education, Sun Consulting (Pvt) Limited, The Next Study Abroad Consultancy, Conzept Connection, Study in Germany and the like, reminding the big need for good counselling services for students, which our country’s educational institutions also need to understand.

One also ran into two cousins Arham Ali and Areeb Ali, one looking to do his graduation and the other his master’s. Both cousins wanted to study in Ireland for which they were at the Ireland Education Office stall. They said the reason for their choosing Ireland for further studies was that they had an uncle there with whom they can also stay. He had also offered to sponsor them.

At Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (Unisza), the representative, Anoshia Mazhar Farooq, was of the view that a foreign degree was always better than a local one. “I’m doing my PhD from Malaysia and I already have a good job, and I know someone who already has a PhD from Pakistan, who is still struggling in the job market,” she made her point.

A group of friends was also there, Anas, Abrar, Inzamam, Azhar and Sabir. Speaking to Dawn, three of them said that they were aspiring to study in Germany while two of them hoping to get admissions to some UK university.

The Dawn Education Expo concludes on Sunday.

Published in Dawn, January 28th, 2024