Ehsaas Undergraduate Scholarship online application opened

ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation Dr Sania Nishtar has said the government opened Ehsaas Undergraduate Scholarship Online Portal 2020-21 for 119 public sector universities across the country.

Dr Nishtar announced that students studying in undergraduate programs at 119 public sector universities across the country can apply for scholarships.

She said the students whose family income was less than Rs 45,000 could apply for the scholarship through the online portal.

She said the total budget for the programme is Rs 24 billion. “This is the largest need-based scholarship programme that will give opportunities for children from low-income families to pursue higher education”, Nashtar added.

Nishtar informed that a total of 132,192 applications were received through the online portal of the Higher Education Commission for the year 2019-20.

The undergraduate scholarships, worth a total of Rs 4.827 billion, were distributed among students in the academic year 2019-20, Dr Nishtar added.

The scholarships have been issued to 50,762 students after scrutiny under the set rules. The program is overseen by the Ehsaas Scholarship Steering Committee, Dr Nishtar added.

In November 2019, Prime Minister Imran Khan had inaugurated the ‘Ehsaas Scholarship Program’. Under the program, scholarships were to be given to 50,000 undergraduate students from low-income families every year.

The four-year program is expected to benefit 200,000 students. The scholarship includes a 100% tuition fee and a monthly stipend of Rs 4,000.

 The scope of the programme includes public sector universities in all four provinces, Azad Kashmir, and Gilgit-Baltistan. Fifty percent of the scholarships are for girls and two percent for students with disabilities.