Category: Awards

It turns out that all FURTHER Scholars from 2016 have either graduated this year or are close to it. However, we have found some deserving new students and will be committing Rs. 100,000 to each of them for the current academic year. Even though our funding is lower than it was in our early years, and therefore we are unable to commit any funds to advertising, we are still able to reach some remarkably deserving students. In view of the funding situation, we are increasingly inclined to favour those candidates who are highly motivated in their studies and determined as well as equipped to get good jobs. The purpose is to make each unit of our limited funding return the greatest number of units for the benefit of our Scholars and their families. Some of our female Scholars in the past got married soon after graduation and did not work. This is essentially a waste of our limited resources. We therefore advise all female candidates to apply only if they are highly motivated to work. In this respect, we have found that female students at medical institutions are strong candidates for our scholarships because they are motivated to use their skills as doctors for the benefit of the family and the community. We therefore encourage all medical students, male and female, to apply.

Congratulations to all those who have graduated this year and to those who have qualified for funding this year. We look forward to helping you achieve your goals.

The second installment of scholarships for 2016-2017 was released on 14 March 2017. All current FURTHER Scholars are requested to monitor their bank accounts and to acknowledge receipt of their scholarship funds. Thank you for your cooperation.

All FURTHER Scholars who applied for renewal have been granted a scholarship in the amount of Rs. 90,000. Thank you all for your cooperation and for submitting all required documents in a timely fashion. For many of you, this is your last year in your current degree programme and we wish you all the best in this critical phase of your career.

Today marks the completion of 6 years of the FURTHER Scholarship programme and we are delighted to be of service to talented students in need. It is also 7 years to the day since the person who inspired FURTHER passed away and his memory is of great inspiration to us in continuing this programme.

Many thanks to all FURTHER Scholars who have provided documentation for helping us reach a decision on renewal of awards. Unfortunately, three of the renewal applicants were consistently far below the required Grade Point Average of 3.0 or equivalent. We were therefore unable to renew for those students. Based on the information provided, we are happy to renew full funding, with an upward adjustment for inflation, for the following Scholars:

Fahad Imran, FAST-NU Islamabad
Fouzia Shaif, Nishtar Medical College, Multan
Muhammad Adnan Khan, FAST-NU Peshawar
Muhammad Zakir FAST-NU Islamabad
Shazia Shafi, Nishtar Medical College, Multan
Sohail Ahmad Shahzad, NUST-EME Rawalpindi
Zain Muhammad, Ayub Medical College Abbottabad
Zia Ur Rahman, Ayub Medical College Abbottabad
Zohaib Shabir Saeedi, NUST Islamabad

Scholarship payments for the academic year will be made in two installments which will be deposited in your designated accounts by 31 October 2015 and 1 March 2016, respectively. If you do not receive your payment by these dates, please send us an email. We request you to be always patient with us because we have no paid staff and usually a single volunteer works hard to take care of all aspects. Please also note that you must provide us your latest academic results by 31 January 2016 so that your second instalment may be released on time. Meanwhile, if there is any change in your financial situation, please do keep us informed.

Today marks the completion of 4 years of FURTHER Scholarships to university students of merit in Pakistan. In terms of figures, this is our lowest year for available funding as well as the number of students who received awards. We are trying hard to improve funding for next year and need the cooperation of all graduating FURTHER Scholars. Please don’t forget to put us on your CVs together with our website address to increase awareness among private and public employers. This is particularly true for those FURTHER Scholars who have now been working for a few years and might be in a good position to spread the word about us.

All the best to everyone for the year ahead. We’re proud of you and proud to be a part of your efforts for a better future.

Today marks the completion of our third year of scholarship awards for deserving and talented university students in Pakistan. All candidates interviewed last week have successfully verified their documents and have been awarded FURTHER Scholarships for 2013-2014. Details shall be provided in the award letter which will be emailed shortly. Successful candidates must submit a fully executed Affidavit before they can start receiving their scholarship payments. Please send a scanned copy of the completed Affidavit by email and follow it up with the original via post. The Affidavit may be attested by a government officer (Grade 17 or above), a bank branch manager, a university professor, or a notary public.

We have pledged about Rs. 1,500,000 in scholarship and relief aid for the next 9 months. This amount shall be distributed among 23 highly deserving young people. The students were selected through a transparent and efficient process over a period of 6 weeks. Our awareness campaign had limitations of time and budget but we were able to reach a highly deserving pool of talented candidates in a very short time. We assigned each candidate a score based on need (50 points), academic ability (35 points) and quality of academic programme (15 points). In assessing the latter, we considered the University’s curriculum as well as reputation among students and employers. Our over-arching philosophy was to identify financially distressed young people who are doing well at reputable institutions so that they can find good jobs upon graduation and thus help their families and communities. The following statistics provide a clear snapshot of the quality and need of the successful candidates:

• Average GPA: 3.47 (Source: University Transcript)
• Average Intermediate Score: 82.80% (Source: HSC Certificate)
• Average Matriculation Score: 86.92% (Source: SSC Certificate)
• Average Household Income: Rs. 18,158 per month (Source: Proof of Income)
• Average Number of Dependents: 5.26 (Source: Family Form B)
• Average Household Income per Dependent: Rs. 3,452 per month

Congratulations to all our successful applicants. We are proud of your courage and commitment. As long as we have young people like you, this country may yet have a future. We have learned from you a good deal about our society, our values, and ourselves. You have also helped us understand a few things that will hopefully enable us to become better administrators of this Trust. Thank you and good luck.