Send-off ceremony held for HEC scholars going to France

Islamabad
A send-off ceremony for HEC scholars to pursue master's and PhD studies in France was held at Higher Education Commission (HEC) on Tuesday.
As many as 92 scholars have been selected from across Pakistan in different disciplines to pursue MS and PhD studies in French universities, under 'Overseas Scholarship for MS-MPhil leading to PhD in Selected Fields, Phase-II'.
The HEC has so far sent 654 scholars to France for PhD under different scholarship programmes, out of which 432 have successfully completed their degrees. However, under the Overseas Scholarship Programme, a total of 291 scholars proceeded to France, out of which 165 have successfully completed their PhD studies.
Congratulating the selected scholars, HEC Chairman Dr Mukhtar Ahmed urged them to properly utilise their stay in France and excel in academic and research work. “You will be ambassadors of Pakistan in France and we expect all of you to prove yourselves as socially responsible citizens,” he said.
The chairman said that the HEC has been greatly emphasising on human resource development programmes to provide highly-qualified faculty and researchers to Universities, research and development organisations and industries. “The HEC has allocated more than 35 percent of the development funds through merit based scholarship programmes being managed by HEC as well as by the public sector universities,” he said. French Embassy Chargé d’ Affaires Pierre Fournier thanked the HEC and the Government of Pakistan for sending scholars to France for higher studies, adding that the performance of Pakistani scholars has been very good.