The following Monday, 2 March, Prime Minister Imran Khan will give bachelor’s scholarship to some 50,000 shortlisted needy students to fund a total of 200,000 students in the four next year under the Ehsaas programme.
Among the beneficiaries of this scholarship scheme, half are the girls hailing from the low-income groups and 2% scholarships have been allocated for the students with special needs.
During the year 2019-20, around 50,000 students, shortlisted from all the public sector universities across the country, would be awarded the scholarships under the government’s flagship anti-poverty Ehsaas Program.
The objective of Ehsaas scholarships program is to ensure that no eligible student is deprived of higher education because of financial need.
This program manifested a historic shift in the government’s scholarship policy as in the past, scholarships used to support MS or PhD level programs, but this project has targeted the undergraduate education. The need and merit-based scholarship covers tuition fee as well as a living stipend.
All students with family income of less than Rs 45,000 and studying in undergraduate programmes across 119 public sector universities recognized by HEC were eligible to apply.
Following the official launch of Ehsaas undergraduate scholarships by the prime minister, the Higher Education Commission’s (HEC) online portal had been opened for applications.
By the closing date, as many as 132,192 undergraduate students (49,841 girls) applied for scholarships for the academic year 2019-20 in the first phase of the project.
