Pakistan Sends Students to US to Get PhDs to Better the Pakistan Economy

Pakistan’s HEC (Higher Education Commission) is planning on helping 10,000 students get their PhD in the United States. These students will be earning a degree in various fields including environmental fields like energy, climate change and water as well as technology, health and medicine and agriculture. Ahsan Iqbal, who is in charge of Planning Development and Reforms for the country, along with Dr. Mukhtar and Dr. Arshad Ali who are part of the commission of higher education in Pakistan announced this program in a video meeting with various representatives from universities in the United states.

This is all part of the relationship that has developed between the US and Pakistan called the Pakistan-US Corridor.  A group of experts in science and technology from both the United States and Pakistan are working together on initiative. Pakistan would like to see as many as 5 million people from their country enrolled in higher education by the year 2025 by making these educational programs available to everyone in their country.

The goal of this program is to educate Pakistani people so they can come back and teach at universities in their own country. The universities in Pakistan are very much in need of instructors with a Phd, with as many as 30,000 available positions that no one is qualified to fill. The people in charge of this program believe that the education the students receive in the US will prepare them to educate people in their own country. Officials in Pakistan also are planning on identifying students with potential in their own universities and working with them to get their PhD in their own country.

The program is hoping to have students return from the United States with their PhD ready to educate students in their own country, participate in research programs, continue to educate them themselves, contribute to the country’s economy by being experts in various industries and to encourage all citizens of Pakistan to be innovative and further their education. There will be a Technology Innovation Fund created for the students who return with their PhD as well as a grant that they can compete for based on their ability to positively impact the economy in Pakistan.

The plans of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to offer more resources for citizens who want to further their education and the progress they have made so far were discussed by Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed. HE praised the Pakistan government for offering mores subsidies for higher education. He said he was confident the Pakistan-US Corridor are educating people and making the economy stronger.