HEC holds Workshop on ‘Opportunities for PhD’
By Bushra Rafique

ISLAMABAD—A two-day workshop on “Exploring Opportunities for PhD and Post Doctorates in Foreign Universities” organized by the Higher Education Commission’s Learning Innovation Division concluded here Saturday.
The workshop was designed for various levels of faculty members of public sector universities and those interested in overseas opportunities of PhD and post doctorates. The workshop addressed the problems of designing studies in view of available opportunities, data issues and options, common shortfalls, research and exploring opportunities through internet, project budgeting and finalizing proposals for submission at appropriate forums.
The workshop was conducted by Dr.Syed Nisar Hussain Hamdani who developed the present course for Pakistani faculty members interested in overseas opportunities of PhD, Post-docs and fully sponsored conferences. The workshop comprised nine sessions having formal and informal one-to-one sessions and proved useful for building the capacity of Pakistani faculty members in choosing appropriate topics for their research.
Dr. Hamdani is an Associate Professor of Economics at University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir and a Research Scholar at Harvard University. He was recently invited by the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) to discuss his research plans on the economics of religion and disaster relief.
Dr. Hamdani did his PhD in Economics from Quaid-e-Azam University,Islamabad. His doctoral research work was well recognized in a short time as ‘Divine Economics’ and the LSE recognized it as ‘the largest dataset of the world on religion and economics’.
He was awarded Fellowship by the Harvard University to extend his work for formulating a model of post-disaster socio-economic behaviour to disaster situations. He is also a resource person for the National Academy of Higher Education (NAHE) that works under the aegis of Higher Education Commission (HEC).
Participants of the course said that the workshop helped provide guidance in recognizing the importance of emerging topics as well as the flexibility available in choice of research topics, preparation of project budgets etc. Presentation by Rozeia Mustafa, Project Manager of Post Doctorate Scheme HEC helped provide much need relevant information on how to pursue post doc funding such as eligibility criteria, duration of the post doc study and admissible allowances etc Over 30 faculty members from Allama Iqbal University, International Islamic University, Islamabad, Government Gordon College, Rawalpindi, National University of Modern Languages Islamabad, Quaid-e-Azam, Islamabad, Government Inter-College Hattian Balla, Muzaffarbad, Fatima Jinnah Postgraduate College for Women, Muzzaffarbad, Fatima Jinnah Women University, Islamabad, Abbas Institute of Medical Sciences, Muzaffarabad, Bahria University Islamabad and College of E &MF, Rawalpindi.