Daily Times

SAPM Dr. Sania Nishtar has announced an extension in the last date to submit applications for the year 2020-21 till November 30, 2020. Earlier, October 30, 2020 was the last date for the submission of online scholarship applications. However, given the COVID-19 fronted delays in admission process at several public sector universities in the country, the last date for Ehsaas scholarship applications has just been revised. The decision has been taken to facilitate maximum number of fresh undergraduate students to apply for this scholarship opportunity. Since the online application portal reopened on Sep 5, 2020 as many as 30,000 applications have been received in the system so far.

The Ehsaas Undergraduate Scholarship is a flagship programme of the present government with an objective to provide scholarships to financially challenged students for the duration of their studies. 125 public sector universities recognized by Higher Education Commission are part of this initiative.

The Ehsaas undergraduate Scholarships are targeted at students from low-income families (less than Rs. 45,000 a month) and marginalized regions to assist them in their undergraduate studies. Eligible students can apply through an online portal.

As part of the programme design, students of first and second semesters enrolled in 4-5 year undergraduate programmes of 125 public sector universities are eligible to submit applications for the academic year 2020-21 scholarships. However, scholarship recipients of other semesters who had secured Ehsaas scholarships in 2019-20 will continue receiving Ehsaas undergraduate scholarship throughout their undergraduate degree based on their satisfactory academic performance.

For the year 2019-20, scholarships worth Rs. 4.827 billion were awarded to 50,762 undergraduate students nationwide. Under the programme, every year, 50,000 students from low-income families will be awarded scholarships for 4 to 5-year undergraduate degree programmes. Over four years, 200,000 undergraduate scholarships will be awarded on need and merit basis. The geographical spread of the programme spans across all four provinces, AJK and GB.

The Ehsaas scholarship aid covers the entire tuition fee along with a monthly stipend. All four/five-year undergraduate programmes are covered under Ehsaas. 50% of awardees are girls and 2% of awardees are differently abled. Total budget over 4 years is Rs. 24 billion.