By Zainab Ali
ISLAMABAD: The government has imposed a drastic cut from 2000 to 854, i.e., 57.3 percent on the overseas award of MS/Ph.D. scholarships, owing to the Pakistani rupee depreciation, which has increased the study cost abroad.
The official documents indicate the total cost of the project ‘Overseas Scholarship for MS/M. Phil leading to Doctor of Philosophy in selected fields (Phase III),’ is Rs 22,214.578 million and will be completed by 2027. This project was started in 2018 and initially aimed at providing 2,000 Overseas Scholarships for M.Phil./MS leading to Doctor of Philosophy scholarships with an estimated cost of Rs. 22,214.578 million. However, the depreciation of the Pakistani rupee against the dollar has increased the cost of studying abroad.
Number of PhD scholarships slashed from 1800 to 711
The documents reveal that the project’s cost remained the same. In contrast, the project’s scope has been reduced from 2,000 scholarships to 854, resulting in increases in the unit cost per student for Doctor of Philosophyand MS. The documents show that the number of PhD scholarships has been slashed from 1800 to 711 PhD, while the scholarship for MS has been cut down from 200 to 143 MS. At the start of the project, one Us dollar was at 112 Rs. Now one dollar has reached over 224 Rs.
