HEC Offers 1000 Local PhD Scholarships for Pakistani Students

The Higher Education Commission (HEC), under the PhD fellowship program, has offered scholarships for PhD studies for students from all across the country for the academic year 2016-2017.

The HEC has offered these scholarships for all fields including engineering, information technology (IT), management sciences, business education, arts and humanities, social sciences, agriculture and veterinary sciences, biological sciences, medical sciences, and physical sciences.

According to an official from the HEC, the total number of available seats for PhD scholarships are 1000. He further added that:

This figure is just for this Phase under the indigenous PhD fellowship program. many scholarships were being offered in different Phases.

These scholarships announced by the HEC are indigenous, so once a selected candidate passes through the prescribed criteria, they will be given admissions in local universities which are recognized by the HEC.

According to the HEC’s website, there are 180 recognized universities and Degree Awarding Institutions functioning across the country including Azad Jammu Kashmir (AJK).

The funding allocated to the HEC is worth Rs 300 million for the financial year 2016-2017. This amount was solely provided for the purpose of scholarships and other schemes. Meanwhile another amount of Rs 298 million has been kept in reserves for the development and upgradation of the Universities of less developed areas of the country.

How to Apply & Deadline

If you wish to apply, sign-in into your Common Profile at HEC’s E-Portal. After signing in, click on “Scholarship and Grants” on the left and then on “Indigenous PhD Fellowship Program”. Follow the instructions given over there, fill in the application form and submit it.

As for new users who don’t have an account yet, click on the “Register” option in the link given above, make an account, and then follow the instructions given above.

The deadline for application is January 31, 2017.

Eligibility Criteria

• Candidate must have a Pakistani or AJK nationality
• For MS/MPhil, the candidates must have minimum of 16 years of education with no 3rd division or Grade D in degree/certificate in the entire academic career
• Candidates applying for direct PhD scholarships must have minimum CGPA 3.0(out of 4.0 in the semester system) or first division (in the annual system) in MS/MPhil/ and an equivalent degree is required along with the condition mentioned above
• Maximum age at the closing date of application is 40 years for full-time regular faculty members of public sector university/DAIs and regular employee of the public sector/R&D organizations, while 35 is the maximum eligible age for all others
• The candidates who are already availing any other HEC/Government scholarship are NOT eligible to apply
• Applicants enrolled into PhD programme before Spring 2015 semester are NOT eligible