192 CW, cultural scholarships to be awarded next year
By Bushra Rafique

ISLAMABAD—Ministry of Education will award as many as 192 scholarships, 59 Commonwealth and 133 Cultural, during the year 2007-08, it was learnt here Monday.
Sources in Ministry of education said Higher Education Commission will award 526 scholarships during the financial year 2006-07 and the same number will be awarded during 2007-08 against various approved programmes. The exact number of Commonwealth and Cultural scholarships are intimated by the donor countries in the last quarter of every year.
According to the selection criteria, the candidates must be below 34 years for Cultural scholarships while the age limit for Commonwealth scholarships ranges between 25 to 50 years. The selection of candidates is based on merit for the provinces and federal area determined by the score test conducted by National Testing Service (NTS).
It is compulsory for the candidates to complete 16 years of education having held first class master degree or equivalent in their relevant fields of study. Applicants, having more than one second division in their academic career are not eligible. Higher Education Commission (HEC) offer scholarships for MS and PhD studies aboard in various disciplines against approved programmes which are advertised in the newspapers. These are also available on HEC’s website.
Applications are sifted and eligible applicants sit in a local GRE type test conducted by NTS.Merit list of candidates is placed on website of HEC and the eligible applicants are called for interview.
“Approval of scholarship is given by National Scholarship Management Committed headed by the executive director of the HEC,” officials at the commission said. “To ensure that applicants from all provinces are given scholarships, the committee includes representatives of all the provinces, ministries of education, science and technology, finance and planning commission and two eminent scholars,” the officials added.
To be eligible for overseas scholarship scheme for PhD in selected fields, it is necessary not to have any third division or D grade in academic career.
The maximum age for full time regular faculty of public and private sector universities is 40 years and 35 years for all others.