None of the Ph.D Scholars Who Received Scholarships & Passed Returned to Pakistan: HEC

[Kabira]

80 out of 132 Ph.D. scholars who went abroad after receiving scholarships through the Higher Education Commission (HEC) didn’t return to Pakistan after completing their research.

It was revealed by the HEC officials while presenting the annual audit report for 2018 during a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) presided over by PTI MNA Noor Alam Khan.


HEC officials apprised the meeting that the remaining 52 Ph.D. scholars failed their examinations and returned to Pakistan without receiving the degree, adding that the national exchequer incurred a loss of Rs. 955 billion in the process.

It is worth mentioning here that HEC rules require Ph.D. students who study abroad at the expense of the Pakistani government to return back and serve a minimum of 5 years in Pakistan.

When inquired about the recovery of financial losses from the failed 52 Ph.D. scholars who returned back to the country, HEC officials revealed that only 1 student has returned the expenses to the HEC.

HEC officials told the committee that the commission was forced to initiate legal proceedings against the 52 students to recover the losses. HEC has won 24 cases while the remaining 27 cases will be concluded soon.

Moreover, HEC has formulated a new policy under which Ph.D. students will be granted scholarships only after they submit the record and original documents of their properties in Pakistan to the commission to avoid such a situation in the future.

HEC would be authorized to confiscate the property in case a student doesn’t return to Pakistan.

MNA Noor Alam Khan expressed apprehension over the new policy and said that it will significantly reduce the chance of students hailing from an impoverished background to study abroad.

In response, HEC officials said that most of the 80 students who didn’t return to Pakistan belonged to the lower or lower-middle class. Thus, such a policy has been devised.

Noor Alam Khan suggested that HEC should allow students who don’t own any property in the country to submit an attorney or a guarantor to the commission in order to receive the scholarships abroad if HEC cannot relax the rules for them.

None of the Ph.D Scholars Who Received Scholarships & Passed Returned to Pakistan: HEC

80 out of 132 Ph.D. scholars who went abroad after receiving scholarships through the Higher Education Commission (HEC) didn’t return

propakistani.pk

 

[Kabira]

HEC officials apprised the meeting that the remaining 52 Ph.D. scholars failed their examinations and returned to Pakistan without receiving the degree, adding that the national exchequer incurred a loss of Rs. 955 billion in the process.

This is probably a typo, but even Rs 9 billion is huge amount.

 

[Crystal-Clear]

they should sign a bound

 

[cloud4000]

Return to what?

Reminds me of India when it established IITs but had no jobs for its graduates, forcing many to emigrate to other countries. Many ended up in Silicon Valley and contributed to its growth.

 

[khanmubashir]

So all who passed absconded
Only failed one returned

On other hand majority of local PhD scholars could not get adiquate jobs

 

[ZAC1]

Return to what...my sis did phd in physics and got excellence award last year.
She is jobless.

 

[Samlee]

They Should Be Given An Amnesty Scheme.If We Can Give NROs To Rich and Powerful Why Not To Our Most Brilliant Minds????

 

[PakFactor]

80 out of 132 Ph.D. scholars who went abroad after receiving scholarships through the Higher Education Commission (HEC) didn’t return to Pakistan after completing their research.

It was revealed by the HEC officials while presenting the annual audit report for 2018 during a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) presided over by PTI MNA Noor Alam Khan.


HEC officials apprised the meeting that the remaining 52 Ph.D. scholars failed their examinations and returned to Pakistan without receiving the degree, adding that the national exchequer incurred a loss of Rs. 955 billion in the process.

It is worth mentioning here that HEC rules require Ph.D. students who study abroad at the expense of the Pakistani government to return back and serve a minimum of 5 years in Pakistan.

When inquired about the recovery of financial losses from the failed 52 Ph.D. scholars who returned back to the country, HEC officials revealed that only 1 student has returned the expenses to the HEC.

HEC officials told the committee that the commission was forced to initiate legal proceedings against the 52 students to recover the losses. HEC has won 24 cases while the remaining 27 cases will be concluded soon.

Moreover, HEC has formulated a new policy under which Ph.D. students will be granted scholarships only after they submit the record and original documents of their properties in Pakistan to the commission to avoid such a situation in the future.

HEC would be authorized to confiscate the property in case a student doesn’t return to Pakistan.

MNA Noor Alam Khan expressed apprehension over the new policy and said that it will significantly reduce the chance of students hailing from an impoverished background to study abroad.

In response, HEC officials said that most of the 80 students who didn’t return to Pakistan belonged to the lower or lower-middle class. Thus, such a policy has been devised.

Noor Alam Khan suggested that HEC should allow students who don’t own any property in the country to submit an attorney or a guarantor to the commission in order to receive the scholarships abroad if HEC cannot relax the rules for them.

None of the Ph.D Scholars Who Received Scholarships & Passed Returned to Pakistan: HEC

80 out of 132 Ph.D. scholars who went abroad after receiving scholarships through the Higher Education Commission (HEC) didn’t return

propakistani.pk

Return to what...my sis did phd in physics and got excellence award last year.
She is jobless.

They Should Be Given An Amnesty Scheme.If We Can Give NROs To Rich and Powerful Why Not To Our Most Brilliant Minds????

I have two friends from Pakistan one from Gujranwala and another from Lahore who were doing PhD in Chemistry at Lahore University while they were also Lecturers. Both were selected by HEC for the PhD in Chemistry program and sent to Cologne, Germany and 4.5 years later they completed their degree (last October and one this July) they returned to Pakistan, and the Universities wouldn't hire them. The Chairman changed and they brought their own people in to teach, none with foreign degrees. One of the my friends returned back to Germany and took a position at the same university he got awarded his PhD, the other who was from Lahore is still in Pakistan and jobless.

We have a very poor system in place that is not neutral in selecting qualified and quality candidates and still stuck with Mera Banda mentality.

These two men excelled in their field greatly, they both were working on Cancer research -- such talent which is going to waste.

 

[Falcon26]

Rather than punitive measures, settle with the students to find other ways they can contribute to Pakistan.

 

[Pakistan Space Agency]

Why should they? What are they going to do in Pakistan other than twiddle their thumbs?

At least when they're abroad, they'll earn money and send a continuous flow from that money back to Pakistan whether to their own bank accounts or to their family.

 

[FCPX]

So the net result was zero since everyone who passed their PhD exams choose to not return.

HEC is clearly not able to do due diligence while granting scholarships.

 

[PakFactor]

So the net result was zero since everyone who passed their PhD exams choose to not return.

HEC is clearly not able to do due diligence while granting scholarships.

its not that they don’t want to return, it’s when they return their no offered jobs or anything and this is first hand experience

 

[DalalErMaNodi]

Happens in Bangladesh too, all the time.


Bright minds go abroad due to a lack of opportunities and then we ask why we aren't benefiting from the thousands of university graduates we produce every year.


Same story all over the region.

 

[FCPX]

its not that they don’t want to return, it’s when they return their no offered jobs or anything and this is first hand experience

I guess its a vicious cycle but one would expect that if HEC is sending people on scholarships they would have some sort of plan to use the education of those people on returning to Pak whether in the public sector or in collab with the private sector.

 

[muhammad504]

Return to what?

Reminds me of India when it established IITs but had no jobs for its graduates, forcing many to emigrate to other countries. Many ended up in Silicon Valley and contributed to its growth.

My personnel experience in this field. Behind every Indian working in Silicon Valley, he/she contract at least 10 Indian jobs back to his country.
1. In Google and Facebook, IBM, Amazon, Apple All Indian managers have 10x contractor team sitting in India.
2. That is how Indian system works. While on the other side, this part is completely missing, my Fellow Pakistani are minority here and there is simply no system exist in America to offload the jobs to Pakistan to boost the economy.

This is a slow process and muti front solution needs to be applied to make that end to end channel works.
1. First step was to send scholars to understand the American system. Lot of other countries do it as well.
2. Second step is to establish a channel to keep those fellows stay in America, but help establish a channel that can offload jobs to Pakistan.

Indians had achieved this not overnight. it took them 3-4 decades to achieve this. So dont expect an overnight success here. It is wrong to blame the people and Government.