KPEF chief pledges to extend scholarship programme to all national varsities

PESHAWAR: The new management of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Education Foundation (KPEF) has expressed the resolve to extend the national scholarship programme to all

the universities of the country and establish linkages with reputed seats of learning abroad to

enable the deserving and talented students of the province to get quality higher education.

Talking to The News after assuming charge as managing director of the foundation, Zariful Maani said that KPEF was an important forum for supporting the talented students of the province to pursue their higher studies within the country and abroad.

He urged the foundation’s officials to concentrate on their job descriptions and demonstrate active and effective performance.Of his vision, he said that all the activities and programmes would be digitized. He said restructuring and updating of the Foundation Act would be expedited. “Success stories and a positive image of the foundation will be emphasized as the minister and secretary of higher education have already indicated their intentions for the same”, he maintained.

Earlier, the new managing director was given a briefing about the foundation.The official was informed that formerly known as Frontier Education Foundation (FEF), the KPEF was founded as a corporate body in 1992 under a Provincial Assembly Act to promote quality education in the private sector in the province through financial support and perform

other functions mainly giving scholarships to talented and deserving students in public and private sector higher education institutions.

Therefore, since 2002, the foundation has disbursed Rs203.33 million among 6,263 students belonging to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, who studied in reputed educational institutions across the country.Given the provincial government’s vision for “KP Youth Scholarship Programme”, the foundation has also disbursed Rs.10.42 million on a merit basis amongst 521 students.

The scholarships were equally distributed among male and female students of government colleges. The provincial government provided Rs 100 million as seed money on account of an endowment fund in 1999 for scholarships.

The provincial government signed memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with the Chinese government under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Project in 2017-18 for international scholarships to the students of the province.

Under the Chief Minister Scholarship Programme, Higher Education Department signed MoUs with different Chinese universities including Harbin Engineering University, Shandong Normal University and Chaang’an University where students were sent to study Chinese language and pursue their BS, MS and PhD programmes for which funds of Rs.500 million were provided. The programme completed in 2023.

At the domestic level, the foundation has already signed memorandums of understanding with 29 top-class national universities where it has been supporting the students to pursue their BS-4-Year and MS-2-Year programs.

A total of 97 students have taken advantage of the programme so far in 19 different universities all over the country. Zariful Maani said that the activities of the foundation would be streamlined and the scholarship programme expanded further.

He pledged to extend the programme to all the universities of the country so that the maximum number of students in the province could take benefit from it.He urged donor agencies and well-off people in the country and abroad to come forward and support the needy and talented students of the province under the KPEF scholarship programme.