ISLAMABAD: The Higher Education Commission (HEC), Islamabad has suspended indigenous PhD and MPhil scholarships in around 150 universities.
According to the information available withDaily Times,the commission recently decided not to entertain the students of 150 universities for Indigenous MPhil/MS and PhD scholarships of batch-V under Indigenous fellowship Program.
The information stated that out of over 200 public and private sector varsities across the country, the HEC reaffirmed only 66 universities in bother sector for awarding indigenous scholarships of said bath sector academia.
The list of universities in the federal have been approved for scholarships includes National University of Modern Languages (NUML), COMSATS University of Information Technology, Air University, Bahria University, Capital University of Science and Technology, Institute of Space Technology, International Islamic University, Islamabad, National University of Sciences & Technology, National Institute of Psychology of Quai-i-Azam University, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Quaid-i-Azam University.
Sources within HEC said that this regretful decision, which was taken by the senior management, would deprive the hundreds and thousands of students from obtaining their doctoral degrees.
Interestingly, over 20 universities out of these 66 universities valid for scholarships are private. While commenting on this, a senior official, under the condition ofanonymity, said that it was quite surprising that the HEC preferred the private sector universities which were attended by relatively privileged students who could easily afford education-related expenses compared to public sector universities.
The HEC charges Rs 500 per student as processing fee to apply for such scholarship programs. According to the sources, as many as 70,000 students of these banned universities applied for HEC scholarships. This means that the relevant authorities in the commission collected around Rs 30 million (m) from the poor students in the way of non-refundable scholarship application fee.
According to the documents, a total of 2031 ingenious scholarships were awarded for under graduate, post graduate, and PhD studies under various schemes during financial year 2017-18. Apart from some other schemes, the government had planned to produce 25000 PhDs locally under single project under indigenous fellowship Program in vision 20-25. Before this, the HEC officially admitted that there is shortage of 38000 PhD scholars in the country.
A few years ago, the HEC formulated strict rules to ensure the provision of quality education in the country’s varsities. The commission directed all public and private sector varsities to implement these laws. One of these rules stated that at least three PhD full time faculty members were required to start any new academic program. “How can the universities comply by HEC rules if it starts closing PhD and MPhil relief study programs at a point in time where there is a shortage of academics and scholars,” questioned an HEC official who wished not to be named.
Meanwhile, the educationists are also mulling over this decision .Former chairman of HEC, Dr Atta Ur Rehman said that after 2008, the government as well as the commission administration ruined the quality of education in varsities. Dr Rehman, who is also among the pioneers of HEC said,“Number of universities now in the country is increased very significantly but nobody focused on the quality of education.” He said that the incumbent administration should re-store all important projects that had been shut down.
Criticising the decision, Atta Ur Rehman said that it was very surprising that indigenous scholarship programs, which encouraged as well as economically supported poor students, were being suspended. The former chairman said that he started many projects and faculty development program was one of them but they were not continued properly.
However, HEC chairman Dr Tariq Banuri defended the decision. He maintained that there were quality issues in some varsities due to which they have been exempted from this program. “The quality education in our higher education sector is my first priority” he claimed and reaffirmed that no university or individual having substandard system would be given any kind of concession in this regard.
Published in Daily Times, December 26th 2018.