ISLAMABAD — A joint arrangement between four Australian universities and Higher Education Commission (HEC) to provide partial PhD scholarships to HEC scholars was on August 12, 2015 finalised in a signing ceremony witnessed by Australian High Commissioner designate, Margaret Adamson.
Under a Document of Understanding (DoU) between the HEC and University of Melbourne, Macquarie University, University of Wollongong and RMIT University, partial PhD scholarships will be provided to 170 HEC scholars.
Ms Adamson congratulated Dr Mukhtar Ahmed, Chairman of the HEC, on the arrangement noting that an HEC delegation of vice chancellors to Australia last year had helped to establish new and strengthen existing links with Australian universities.
“Australia is becoming a destination of choice by students from all over the world with more than 250,000 international students currently studying in Australia, including more than 10,000 from Pakistan,” Ms Adamson said.
Under the partial scholarship program, the University of Melbourne will offer 75 PhD scholarships, the University of Wollongong will offer 25 PhD scholarships and Macquarie University will offer 50 PhD scholarships in the next five years. RMIT University will offer 20 PhD scholarships in the next four years. In 2013, the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and HEC signed a similar DoU. The first batch of PhD scholars to UNSW are expected to begin undertaking their studies this year.