Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Sania Nishtar said it is for the first time in the history that such a big Undergraduate Scholarship Programme has been initiated purely on government expenses under ‘Ehsaas initiative to ensure 50,000 deserving students’ access to higher education annually.
Speaking at the launch ceremony of Ehsaas Undergraduate Scholarship Programme said,” This scholarship will accommodate 200,000 students including 50 per cent girls from the low backgrounds in the four years through providing them full tuition fee as well as living stipends.”
She further added, ” the prime objective of Ehsaas scholarships program is to ensure that no eligible student is deprived of higher education because of financial need. Two percent scholarships will be exclusively awarded to students with special needs. This programme is unique as it reflects a historic shift in scholarship policy of the government”.
The prime minister Imran Khan handed scholarship letters to a select few students during the ceremony, while distributing scholarships to the first batch of deserving students under the Ehsaas programme.
While addressing the ceremony PM Imran said,“I follow state of Madinah as my role model and by following this model, our government will look after the underprivileged segment of society on a priority basis”
“We are also working towards empowering women in villages. These programmes have been realised through a lot of hard work, and will operate solely on merit, keeping political affiliations aside,” he said.
The continuation of scholarship in following years will depend upon the maintenance of academic performance. By the closing date, as many as 132,192 undergraduate students (49,841 girls) applied for scholarships for the academic year 2019-20 under the first phase of the project.
The students from low-income backgrounds studying in undergraduate programmes across 119 public sector universities recognized by HEC were eligible to apply.
Subsequently, the universities scholarship award committees made provisional decisions based on applications and documents received and recommended them for ratification by the program steering committee.
The provisional decisions were confirmed after formal ratification as well as follow up scrutiny, including income verification, verification of supporting documents, and personal interviews by the scholarship award committee.
The project is being overseen by the Ehsaas Scholarships Steering Committee, co-chaired by Dr. Nishtar and Chairman HEC.
