ISLAMABAD ( BMZ REPORT )
The Federal Government, through Higher Education Commission (HEC), has announced that from financial year 2015-16, the tuition fee and approved mandatory charges of all new university admissions under Prime Minister’s Tuition Fee Scheme will be paid in advance.
The basic objective is to increase outreach of the Scheme and further facilitate students who apply in universities under the Scheme which has been specifically designed to provide financial assistance to the students of less developed regions who are eligible for admission on open merit.
An amount of Rs. 1.8 billion has been allocated for this new initiative of paying fee in advance from Fall 2015/Spring 2016, which will encourage meritorious and needy students to apply for higher studies without worrying about their university dues.
The newly admitted students have to apply through Student’s Web Portal of the Scheme. The concerned university will verify the eligibility/ authenticity of its students and funds will be released to the university by HEC accordingly.
Students with valid domicile/local certificates of specified areas enrolled in Masters, MS/MPhil programmes in public sector university or postgraduate college located in their respective region are eligible. Further, the students with valid domicile/local certificates of selected areas enrolled in PhD programme in any public sector university of Pakistan are also eligible under the Scheme.
During the last two years, HEC has reimbursed tuition fee and other approved charges of more than 100,000 students of less developed areas amounting to Rs. 2.5 billion. The areas included under the scheme are Balochistan, Gilgit/Baltistan, FATA, Interior Sindh, Southern Punjab, AJK, Malakand, Kohistan, Dera Ismail Khan divisions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Attock, Mianwali, Bhakkar and Khushab districts of Punjab.
The Scheme covers tuition fee, admission/registration fee, examination, laboratory, library (non-refundable) and Research fee of Masters, MS/MPhil and PhD students.
New areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa such as Lakki Marwat, Batgram, Kala Dhaka/Torghar, Kohat, Bannu, Hangu and Karak have also been included to ensure maximum facilitation to students of these areas. Detail about scheme can be obtained from www.hec.gov.pk/frs