Batch of 192 HEC Scholars leave for Sweden
By Bushra Makhdoom

ISLAMABAD—Nation has great expectations from Pakistani scholars who are being sent abroad particularly in developed countries to bring back the best that the host country offers them, interlaced with their own cultures, religion and moral values, this was stated by Prof. Dr. Sohail H. Naqvi, Executive Director HEC while addressing the HEC Scholarship award ceremony for doctoral studies in Sweden.
The ceremony was organized by the Higher Education Commission here on Thursday.
Dr. Naqvi further said that the nation is proud of the scholars who are being awarded the scholarships, which have been given purely on merit in transparent manner. He advised the scholars that being social ambassadors of Pakistan the awardees should seek the higher education with dignity, higher standards of ethics and hard work. Their attitude should also contribute towards the impression management of Pakistan as actions speaks louder then words and HEC has full confidence in their conduct, behavior and law abiding attitude which they should exhibit in the host country.
Earlier Dr. Syed Mehmood Raza, Adviser (HRD) HEC in his welcome address informed the audience that the HEC, entering into the sixth years in the next five days has pursued a multi-pronged holistic strategy with a single focus of making Pakistani Universities compatible with world class institutions to serve as the engine for the socio-economic development of the country. Introducing the scheme Dr. Raza said that till July 2007 their were only 21 HEC Scholars studying at Swedish universities but in this academic session the HEC at Islamabad arranged and conducted interviews through video conferencing of 537 short-listed applicants continuously from which a total of 192 applicants have been awarded scholarships for Masters leading to Ph.D. or directly for Ph.D. to be carried out at seven leading Swedish Universities. 20 scholars from the batch of 192 grantees have already joined their respective universities in Sweden. Rest of the awardees are proceeding within the next 4-6 weeks.
He further said that the HEC is grateful to the cooperation of the Swedish embassy in Pakistan in the issuance of visas in such a short period of time.
The ceremony ended with the vote of thanks to the Chief Guest Prof. Dr. Sohail H. Naqvi, senior officers of the HEC, scholarships awardees and their parents for attending the ceremony.