HEC launches national online scholarship calendar

The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has launched Pakistan's first national online scholarship calendar, which will provide the students and families with an one-window operation to access all available scholarships being offered through HEC and 11 pilot universities across the country.
Dr Sohail Naqvi, Executive Director, HEC, was the chief guest in the recently held launching ceremony of the Scholarship Calendar, which has been developed with the assistance of the USAID-Funded Higher Education Commission-Financial Aid Development (HEC-FAD) Programme.
The ceremony was attended by Vice Chancellors and staff from all HEC-FAD partner universities. Speaking on the occasion, Dr Sohail Naqvi said, "With time, we intend for this online scholarship calendar and portal to become the place for trusted scholarship information".
"We plan to augment the work of financial assistance offices at universities to make them more robust and student friendly. This initiative reflects our firm commitment to providing better service to our students, their families and the general public. We are grateful to USAID for its support of our efforts to provide better information and service to Pakistan's students and their families," he added.
HEC developed the online calendar in response to lack of complete information available to students regarding the type and value of scholarships available, application procedure, deadlines and eligibility criteria. Through the new calendar, students will now have easy access to a central platform through which they will be able to search all scholarship opportunities at 11 pilot universities.
HEC will eventually expand the calendar to include all universities in the country. The public can access the Scholarship Calendar on the HEC website or on the websites of the pilot universities. The Commission is also currently creating a centralised application process wherein students will be able to apply for scholarships through a standardised online application form.
Eleven pilot universities participating in Phase-I of the USAID Merit and Needs Based Scholarship Programme includes University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, NWFP Agriculture University, Peshawar, Sindh Agriculture University, Tandojam, University of Arid Agriculture, Rawalpindi, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi, Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology (SZABIST), Karachi, Sukkur Institute of Business Administration, Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Lahore, Balochistan University of Information Technology and Management Sciences, Quetta, and Institute of Management Sciences (IMS), Peshawar.
The USAID's HEC-FAD Programme provides technical assistance in both financial aid and fundraising to HEC and USAID-partner universities across Pakistan. The main focus is on creating a collaborative and sustainable environment under which the HEC and universities will work to enhance financial aid programmes and create an infrastructure for raising private resources to augment support from the government of Pakistan and international donors.