HEC, France helping students for higher studies

Since 2000, all 438 Pakistani students were admitted in different universities and colleges of France for higher studies on the financial support of Higher Education Commission and France.
According to French Embassy, the number of students has been increasing every year, as in 2000 only 17 students departed France for higher study while this number increased to 147 in 2006.
The French Embassy has provided funds for the French language classes in Pakistan and in France for 100 students besides helping students for higher education in other subjects.
The Government of France allocates 23 percent of its national budget to education, that pays all general tuition fees whether students are French or not. The French State pays a very large part of each student's expenses, keeping admission fees among the lowest in the world. During the 2005-2006 students belonging to different subjects were provided scholarship for higher study in France.
In the engineering and technology, there were 75 students, physical sciences 27 students, life sciences 21, business education 19, social sciences 5, and arts/ humanities three students.
The students mostly come from the top Pakistani universities, including UET, Comsats, Nust, GIKIEST, NED, Punjab University, University of Agriculture Faisalabad and others. Latest group of students departed for Paris from Lahore and Islamabad for higher education.
The students will be driven by bus to their French language training centers in Grenoble, Tour, Colmar, Royan where they'll have two months of very intensive French language classes.
They will start courses in the French universities in mid September. According to French Embassy, 147 Pakistani students would travel to France to obtain their PhD in French universities. This confirms the growing interest of Pakistani students in French higher education.
This year, most of the students have a background in the following disciplines: Engineering and technology, physical sciences, life sciences, business education, social sciences, arts and humanities. The French Embassy funds French language classes in Pakistan and France. The French government grants them free tuition in the French universities. The Higher Education Commission of Pakistan provides students with fully funded PhD scholarships.
A group of students, who will complete their education, this year, will come back in August. The students have completed a rigorous selection process, first handled by the Higher Education Commission and secondly through interviews with French professors in May and November, last year.
Since being chosen, they have taken intensive French classes at the French Centers in Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi and Peshawar. After their admissions to French universities a French officer is counselling them according to their goals and qualifications.
France is the country of high technology: the high-speed train, the smart card, the Ariane rocket, and Airbus planes. France has also the world's fifth largest economy, it generates 5 percent of the world's gross domestic product (GDP) and is home to world-class manufacturing groups such as Renault, Alcatel, Michelin, LOréal, Total, France Telecom, Carrefour and many thousands of promising start-ups. France is the world's fourth most active country in research and development after the US, Japan, and Germany.
Every year, € 34 billion is spent on research in France (2.25 percent of the 2002 GDP). It hosts a total of 185,000 researchers in the public and private sectors and provides the best research facilities in its network of interdisciplinary graduate high schools, so students have the opportunity to train with some of the world's most successful companies.
France dedicates 23 percent of its national budget to education. The French government provides the tuition fees for all foreign and national students, in the 92 French public universities all over the country.
In the French universities, courses are open to everyone free of charge with the exception of enrolment fees, which are very low for universities and State-funded engineering schools. Foreign students are treated in exactly the same way as French students in terms of status and the tuition fees they pay.