**Funds dearth: HEC to end MPhil, PhD programme
**By SYED JAFAR ASKARI November 22, 2008
KARACHI - Higher Education Commission (HEC) has decided to stop sending students abroad on scholarships for MPhil and PhD programmes due to financial cut in the HEC’s budget by the present democratic government, The Nation learnt on Friday through its sources.
The HEC was used to spend Rs 5 billion yearly on account of scholarships, while previous scholarship programme, advertised in January 2008, will be continued but now the programme has been terminated due to inappropriate policies of the government.
It is pertinent to mention here that HEC, from its inception to date, has sent around 3000 candidates to USA, China, Austria, Germany, England, Italy, France and other countries for higher research (MPhil/PhD).
It is also worth mentioning that the** government funding to HEC had been stopped when PPP-led government came into power**.
Re: No More (PHD, MPhil) Scholarships From Hec ::: Courtesy of PPP
i think its a good step. whatever few phds do come back to pakistan after this scholarship dont really contribute as much as you might think. pakistan's problem has never been the lack of qualified engineers etc. It has always been a lack of oppurtunities after they graduate, which is why its more important at the moment to fix the ****ed up economy.
besides people who get accepted to phd programmes manage to fanagle research assistantships anyway, even those in masters programmes often get assistantships if they're motivated enough. on the other hand i've seen more than I want of lazy people who enjoyed a plum life sitting on their asses with HEC funding.
Not to say that all of them are sponging the system ofcourse, many of my friends are doing phds now on HEC funding. but i believe they could have done it without the govt funding too, it is just a little more challenging. in my time in america, i have without a lot of difficulty i was offered funding for phd on three different occasions, when i was a masters student. i am now doing a phd in UK on UK dime as well. if your own financial ass is on the line you look for the abundant funding oppurtunities US/Europe has. If your govt is paying for everything, not so much.
if anything Pakistani govt should sponsor a semester of funding in amreeka for masters studies, and let the students find their own way after that. sponsor free classes for GRE tests. you could train 100s of pakistanies for the money that goes in just one phd. if they have good test scores, they can get their funding before they leave the country.
Re: No More (PHD, MPhil) Scholarships From Hec ::: Courtesy of PPP
Very few people actually completed their PhDs, and alot of pot-belly walley incompetent army people used this to go abroad with their families and start their ayashi while doing their PhDs, with some young civilian scholars doing most of their work. This is just one example of how this ayaashi aka scholarship was being abused. Most of them have now used their two years of Pak Govt funding, and are now using the University funding there to stay there as long as they can. So far very few of these PhDs have returned, and lets see if others complete and come back and theres any advantage of this rather expensive program, and then think about increasing HEC's budget.
The aim of this program was to have these foriegn educated scholars come back and do the same here in Pakistan, not for the Govt to continue to spend millions so to send everyone abroad.
Re: No More (PHD, MPhil) Scholarships From Hec ::: Courtesy of PPP
doesnt have to be either or. in calling for a reduction in government spending for ministers you dont necessarily have to also support unnecessary, misdirected spending on education.
I disagree with the notion that economy needs a fix before investing in higher education. Though I couldn't get into teaching job because of PhD requirement in unis in Pakistan I think it is good requirement and we should invest in more PhD level education.
However we need a parallel investment in 'law enforcement' in the country to ensure safety of civilians, once students go abroad and see the security and perks in foreign countries it becomes a tough choice for them to go back.
We have seen PPP denting education in past as well when Benazir withdrew S&T scholarships in 90s (her 2nd tenure?) so it doesn't come as surprise to me.
Re: No More (PHD, MPhil) Scholarships From Hec ::: Courtesy of PPP
No Pakistan doesn't need PHDs right now.
I Would like to see this money spent on the grass root level, i.e. elementary education
Every child born in Pakistan must go to school and if the parents fail to put him school then they should be penalized.
Yeah its pretty complicated, most cases these kids start working at a young age and support families, in some cases there is no option available, so the govt. has to step in and do something about it.
Guys we are already 200 years behind... the ONLY way to move forward is to increase literacy and educate our masses, and as we speak this is a 50 YEAR plan, we will start seeing results after 50 years, and the more we delay... the more we fall behind.
if you have a good masters, you will be able to get into teaching faculty in any of the good educational institutes, except perhaps LUMS and possibly NUST (edit: nope not nust. The head of faculty for electronics is a masters from MSU). GIKI I know is manned mainly by people with foreign masters... heck even local masters are now being hired there.
You probably don't know the importance of PhDs then.
I Would like to see this money spent on the grass root level, i.e. elementary education
Every child born in Pakistan must go to school and if the parents fail to put him school then they should be penalized.
It should not be done at the cost of sponsoring PhDs.
its not about the phds its about their retention
Retention is only possible if we can have security in the society. If security is not good enough they will fly out to find better places where they can utilise their education and live peacefully without facing any security threat.
if except perhaps LUMS and possibly NUST (edit: nope not nust. The head of faculty for electronics is a masters from MSU).
The present head of dept for electronics is a PhD, Dr. Mojeeb Bin Ehsan, and he got his PhD back in 1992, they wouldnt and have never hired a 'masters' dude as HOD in EME College.
Re: No More (PHD, MPhil) Scholarships From Hec ::: Courtesy of PPP
ehtasab, dont you think we need a scheme where people are incentivized to get their own funding, atleast after they've gone to amereka or europe? there are so many research oppurtunities in american universities especially if you're a phd student. but since they have govt funding, they dont even try for it.
Ah i see where I went wrong. I was looking at NUST School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science with HOD as Air Cdre (R) Habeel Ahmad. I could never get the whole weird naming scheme NUST/EME/NIIT/NESPAK/NUSLINK/UNUST/etc likes to employ
ehtasab, dont you think we need a scheme where people are incentivized to get their own funding, atleast after they've gone to amereka or europe? there are so many research oppurtunities in american universities especially if you're a phd student. but since they have govt funding, they dont even try for it.
Yes that could be one good incentive, but even for that they will need to be financed until they get some other funding.
I don't know how other govt grants/fundings are utilised but during my MS in US I came to know that certain govt institutions (Banks) finance higher study of children of their employees (1 child per year) and the check is made to the institution, they are required to provide statement from the university that no additional funding is provided to the student before check is provided.
So there can be additional checks and balances to improve the whole situation instead of cutting down the whole tree.
Re: No More (PHD, MPhil) Scholarships From Hec ::: Courtesy of PPP
Data - being a gikian im happy to believe that even EME, CAE, MCS are jokes
ehtasab… yeah industry needs to step up. When I was doing my masters, most of the indian students had come with loans from private banks. The reason that is so much better is that they still had incentive to find their own funding, so that they could pay off whatever they had taken from the bank and get away from paying the remaining amount. Given the numbers of pakistanies motivated to go abroad there is no reason why a similar scheme wouldnt work in the private sector for Pakistan. But why would any bank invest in that sort of scheme when the government is giving the funding away for free?
i have never met an indian who came to do a phd on their own govt’s dime, though most phd students atleast in engineering are indian. it doesnt make sense to me, particularly for students who come to america.
Re: No More (PHD, MPhil) Scholarships From Hec ::: Courtesy of PPP
hey i was there. in 99 we did the first (and only) student strike in GIKI history. Got AQ Khan to come to GIKI and try to talk to us. Got the scapegoat fired..not that it brought any teachers for us... but felt good.
such fond memories.
and dont go calling giki a joke. thems fighting words.
