National ICT Scholarship Programme 2011 launched

ISLAMABAD: National ICT Research and Development Fund, Ministry of Information Technology has launched `National ICT Scholarship Programme 2011' (NICTSP 2011) for talented students of rural areas across the country.

The National ICT Scholarship Programme 2011 will provide fully funded 4 year undergraduate scholarships in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) related disciplines in the top ICT universities of the country.

The programme is aimed at providing access to the deserving and talented youth from rural marginalized areas to enter the ICT profession and become world-class ICT professionals to serve the country.

This fully funded scholarship covers admission and tuition fee, boarding and lodging, book and food allowance and stipend for successful students to pursue undergraduate degree in ICT disciplines.

About 15 universities participating in the programme including public and private sector universities.

A modified scholarship programme will be conducted due to shortage of time and interested students from schools and colleges should prepare for the entrance exams of participating universities of their choice on their own.

The interested students must stay informed about National ICT Scholarship Programme 2011 participating university selection criteria, registration, and entrance exam dates and take the entrance exams for selected universities on their own to be potentially eligible for the scholarship.

National ICT Research and Development Fund with the assistance of Ministry of IT and Telecom was able to get additional funding for its scholarship programme through the approval of PC-I by ECNEC in early 2008.

This programme is now conducted in financial collaboration of National ICT R&D Fund and Public Sector Development Programme of the government.

A total of over 1,700 talented and deserving students are studying and some have graduated from the 15 top private and public sector ICT universities of the country and are being funded by National ICT Scholarship Programme to pursue undergraduate degrees in ICT-related disciplines.

During the course of the last few years, 2,500 teachers and 36,000 students have been trained under this programme.