LAHORE: The Government College University Lahore will offer salaries to postgraduate students to attract brightest minds across the world from September 2021. These studentships will comprise not just monthly salaries but also fee waivers for the selected top MPhil and PhD scholars.

MPhil students will be offered Rs40,000 per month and a fee waiver, while PhD scholars will get Rs60,000 per month plus a fee waiver.

The required funds will be generated from additional seats in the undergraduate programmes.

Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Asghar Zaidi said, “These postgraduate studentships will be highly competitive. We are replicating this model from the leading global universities which allocate a portion of their income from undergraduate programmes for strengthening postgraduate research.”

He added the selected postgraduate scholars in GCU would be required to teach two courses per semester related to their research topic. “This will anchor them in their research and will bring in fresh ideas in teaching. I am glad our Academic Council has already approved this scheme,” he added.

While explaining the rationale, Prof Zaidi said, “It is unfortunate that some universities are minting money by offering self-supporting postgraduate degrees. They admit a large number of students irrespective of their competence to make the programme financially feasible. MPhil and PhD are degrees of excellence and they cannot be offered for monetary benefits alone. Offering studentships to postgraduates is part of our recent drive to improve the teaching and research at GCU.”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021