Sep 2, 2021 – Islamabad: Dr. Sania Nishtar was a chief guest at the HEC-USAID Scholarship event jointly hosted by Higher Education Commission (HEC) and USAID. Under the umbrella of Merit and Needs based Scholarship Program (MNBSP), USAID and HEC have rolled out 700 new graduate level scholarships for women, talent hunt program for financially disadvantaged girls, and capacity building plan to support financial aid systems of forty Pakistani public sector universities. Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Sania thanked USAID for supporting 700 scholarships and for supporting capacity building in women universities to promote higher education for girls in Pakistan. She said, “Providing financial access to education for the underprivileged populations, Ehsaas is running need cum merit based Ehsaas undergraduate scholarship programme nationwide offering 200,000 scholarships (50% for girls) worth Rs. 24 Billion over 4 years. With Ehsaas Undergraduate Scholarships dovetailed to Ehsaas School Stipends nationwide, the unprecedented scale of Ehsaas assistance allows Pakistan, for the first time, to look holistically at measures to improve education at all ages from early schooling to under-graduate and everything in between.” Other eminent guests who joined the event were, USAID Mission Director Pakistan, Executive Director HEC, USAID officials, Vice Chancellors and students.
