• Two-day event brings together over 80 universities under one roof
• Attendees explore scholarships, study-abroad options
• Workshops, panel discussions and interactive sessions provide practical learning and counselling for aspiring students

KARACHI: Standees beckoning students to study abroad or go for this or that course lined the long entrance to the marquee at Pearl-Continental Hotel where the two-day 21st Dawn Education Expo opened on Saturday.

The Dawn Education Expo brought together over 80 universities and colleges under a single roof. These included mainstream higher education institutes from North America and the United Kingdom as well as emergent ones from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Malaysia, New Zealand, Northern Cyprus, Pakistan, Russia, Switzerland, Turkiye and the UAE.

Students with dreams of a bright future found the various expo stalls offering free career counselling, details about international and local scholarships, along with guidance on student visas and admissions, just what they were looking for. None of them were empty-handed as all were carrying a bunch of flyers and booklets in neat little goody bags. Most had come with friends or parents.

Two students of intermediate science group, Saeed Mumtaz and Shaukat Ali, were looking for studying abroad options, which also made them inquire about scholarships.

“We want to study abroad, so this is a good opportunity to find out about scholarships to which we can apply,” Ali told Dawn.

There were also cousins Ramis Fawad, Arhan and Ziad Jawad with one kid’s mother Qudsia Munir, who was also aunt to the latter two boys, all interested in studying in Germany.

“I have myself studied locally, at IBA actually, but I want my son and nephews to explore foreign options. They are all around the same age so ideally I would prefer for them to apply to the same universities in the same country,” said the mother.

Savera Aslam, at the Striveny consultancy stall, said that most students were inclined towards Germany, Italy or Turkiye. “But if you ask me, they must also consider Malaysia because with universities in Malaysia you don’t need English proficiency exam scores while visa requirements don’t include bank statements,” she smiled.

She said that, besides being an education consultancy, they also offer a portal-based system which can help streamline things, such as searching for suitable programmes for students after they make their profile on the portal.

More help was at hand at the British Council stall. While providing information there, Sara Sulaiman said that they offer undergraduate, postgraduate, Masters and PhD programmes in different universities in the UK along with the scholarship options available.

She also had an easy way to navigate through the multiple options region-wise and course-wise by scanning a QR code or by going to the website study-uk.britishcouncil.org.

Though they came somewhat confused, after getting a good idea about things, most of the students were of the view that it would be better to graduate from local universities and then think about postgraduate studies abroad. For that there were numerous local university representatives there to guide them.

Other than the stalls, there were also workshops, talks and panel discussions by experts in the education field concurrently taking place in the conference area created in one spacious enclosure inside the hotel marquee.

A little class was also underway at a stall. Student facilitator Sadia Faisal at the Digital Micro School stall was working with children from Malir.

“I don’t really teach, I facilitate children with tablets, headphones and different English, Urdu and Mathematics applications that are based on gamification,” said the facilitator. “The students then learn on their own,” she added.

The Dawn Education Expo in Karachi wraps up on Sunday following which there will be the day-long Expo in Islamabad at the Serena Hotel on Nov 20 and the two-day Expo in Lahore at the Nishat Hotel (Emporium) in Johar Town.

Dawn is also offering students a chance to win a laptop in each city through raffle draws.

Published in Dawn, November 16th, 2025