HEC to send 200 students to New Zealand for higher studies
By asim hussain

ISLAMABAD—Higher Education Commission (HEC) will send 200 students annually to New Zealand for PhD and post-doctoral studies in the priority areas.
Pakistani students will be sent in the priority areas of Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics, Computer Sciences, Biotechnology, Economics, Finance and Business Management. In a meeting held here on Wednesday, details of the programmes were discussed between Chairman HEC Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman and a delegation of Massey University, New Zealand.
The other programmes and proposals discussed were creation of linkages between various university departments of Pakistan with corresponding institutions in New Zealand as well as food processing industry of New Zealand.
Chairman HEC asked the delegation led by Prof. Robert Anderson, Vice Chancellor of Massey University to provide a time and money bound action plan. The first batch of students should leave as early as possible, said Prof. Atta. Prof. Atta has already asked the New Zealand Ambassador Harnish McMaster to identify a facilitating organization in New Zealand to coordinate the admission process.
He has also asked him to provide details about the degrees equivalence system.
It has been decided that a team from New Zealand will visit Islamabad in November to interview and select the students.
The delegation is visiting Pakistan to explore ways and means for cooperation amongst institutes of higher learning of both the countries.
The main purpose of the visit of the delegation is to have a first hand understanding of the proper procedures required by the Pakistani government to send the post-graduate students for Massey University. The delegation also wants to understand the dairy industry in Pakistan as before offering to train the postgraduate students from Pakistan it would be prudent for the university to have some understanding of the area where the university can contribute most effectively.