Saudi Arabia announces fully funded scholarships for Pakistani students

The Saudi Arabia government has announced fully funded scholarships for Pakistani students to study at diploma, bachelor's, master's, and PhD levels in 25 top universities of the kingdom. Students residing in Pakistan and legal resident of KSA both can apply for these scholarships.

75 per cent students will be awarded scholarship from Pakistan whereas 25 per cent scholarships will be given to Pakistani students residing in the Kingdom.

The successful candidates will also be provided with monthly stipend and other facilities.

According to the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC), the scholarships have been announced in the disciplines of politics, law, education, administration, economics, engineering, computer science, agriculture, Arabic, Islamic Studies and media sciences.

The science students securing the scholarships will be given a monthly stipend of 900 Saudi Riyal (SR) and 850 SR monthly allowance will be given to humanities students.

Moreover, those securing admission at the varsities will be provided with a return ticket as well as free medical facilities.

Also read: Govt allocates Rs65 billion for HEC

The applicants, hailing from Pakistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), should be aged between 17 to 25 years for Bachelor's programme, must be below 30 years for Master's programme and less than 35 for PhD programme on closing date of the application portal of respective university.

Each university is authorised to enroll only five per cent of the international students except for Princess Noor Binte Abdul Rehman University for girls, Riyadh and Jamia Islamia Madinah Munawara, where the percentage on scholarship is eight per cent.

Jamia Islamia Madinah Munawara will grant admission on scholarship 85 per cent of the total seats.

The scholarship covers free lodging; three months furnishing allowance on arrival in KSA for married scholars; return air ticket; free medical for the students and his/her family, if married; three months graduation allowance for shipment of books; subsidised meal at the campus; sports and recreational activities on the campus; and support for dependents and travel expenses.

The coalition government led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has allocated Rs65 billion for the HEC in the budget for fiscal year 2022-23.

Announcing the budget, Finance Minister Miftah Ismail said that the government has earmarked Rs65 billion in the current budget for Higher Education Commission. “In addition, Rs44 billion have been allocated for the development schemes of the HEC which is 67 per cent higher than the previous year,” he said.