Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Islamabad

In order to stop the brain-drain of HEC-funded Pakistani scholars, Higher Education Commission (HEC) has evolved a comprehensive strategy to prosecute against those scholars, who refuse to return after the completion of their PhD programmes.

For those scholars, who seem to be evasive of their legal, moral and ethical duty to return and serve their motherland after being facilitated by HEC, a strict mechanism of monitoring and vigilance has been devised by the Commission.

A scholar, as per the duly notarised documents (deed of agreement, guarantee to HEC and certification of financial soundness), is liable of reimbursing the entire amount in foreign currency plus any penalty as per decision of the National Scholarship Management Committee if he breeches the agreement.

In the recent meeting of the National Scholarship Management Committee, the representatives of provincial governments, Ministry of Science & Technology, Ministry of Education and HEC were unanimous in their desire to ensure that all scholars complete their education abroad in the minimal possible time and return immediately to join the academic and research organisations in Pakistan.

It was emphasised that integrated efforts be continued to improve the monitoring and vigilance of the foreign scholars. It was decided that the name of the absconding scholars would be posted on the HEC website.



Besides, the case will also be forwarded to the Federal Investigative Agency (FIA) and the Foreign Office for pursuing the return of scholars under international agreements.

No effort would be spared to ensure the success of the HEC scholarship programmes and no opportunity would be provided to anybody to exploit the programme for their personal benefit.

HEC has been mandated by the government of Pakistan to formulate policies, guiding principles and priorities for the higher education sector. Innovative programmes including faculty development, increased funding for universities, research support, and foreign and local scholarships have been designed to achieve the objective of a knowledge-based economy.



In order to increase the share of PhD faculty in universities and equipping the research and development organisations of Pakistan, foreign MS and PhD level scholarships have been awarded to Pakistani scholars. The programme has started to pay off in terms of the scholars completing their PhD successfully and joining their parent organisations and universities.

To facilitate scholars who do not have any employment, HEC has the Interim Placement of Fresh PhDs (IPFP) programme, providing an opportunity to these returning scholars to be directly placed at universities in Pakistan. The News