News Desk
ISLAMABAD: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has awarded a six-month fellowship to 165 Pakistani PhD scholars under International Research Support Initiative Program (IRSIP). The announcement was made amid a ceremony held at HEC Secretariat here on Wednesday where Chairman HEC Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed graced the occasion as the chief guest.
So far HEC has distributed a total of 3,199 awards under IRSIP with an aim to focus on boosting the quality of doctoral research, along with the opportunity for scholars to train at advanced labs of prestigious institutes and introducing Pakistani talent globally.
HEC Awards
Out of these fellowships/awards, 966 have been awarded in the field of Biological and Medical Sciences, 831 in Physical Sciences, 576 in Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences, more than 470 in Social Sciences, 269 in Engineering and Technology, while 86 fellowships were awarded in Management Sciences.
While addressing the ceremony, Chairman HEC said that the current project was conceived during the early years of HEC’s establishment with an aim to provide dynamic research opportunities to students so they can make cheerful careers and serve the country.
The Chairman urged the students to make the best out of this opportunity as it is being offered with a lot of investment, and at a time when Pakistan is facing a severe dollar shortage. He requested the students to remember Pakistan for facilitating them in these hard times.
Awards on Merit
Addressing the event, Executive Director HEC shared with the participants, the breakdown of the session’s awards, while adding that the gender ratio of the awardees is very encouraging as 47 percent of the awardees are female scholars, whereas 53 percent are male.
The Vice Chancellor, Capital University of Science and Technology (CUST) hailed the role of HEC’s scholarship division. “I was pleasantly surprised to know how thorough and inclusive the scrutiny process was, and I am really glad to see that HEC has chosen the best talent of Pakistani for this golden opportunity.”, he said.
Director, National Centre of Physics Prof. Aslam Baig in his remarks said that the purpose of these fellowships/awards was to enhance PhD work in Pakistan, each one of which was costing a heavy amount. I will request you to consider it as a loan and think about the ways of paying it back to your country, he added.
