This is the scholarship people mean when they say “HEC sent him abroad”. Phase-III pays for an MS/MPhil or a PhD at a university in the top 200 of the QS or Times Higher Education rankings, and it says plainly what it is for: building the faculty and researchers Pakistan needs in eight thematic areas, from digital transformation and climate to agri-tech, health and governance.
Selection runs on two things: your score in the HEC Aptitude Test (HAT), and an interview. HEC's notice gives the HAT's weight as 40% verbal, 35% analytical and 25% quantitative reasoning. Scholarships are awarded on merit within the government's provincial quotas, and HEC then shares the shortlist with its partner agencies, such as DAAD in Germany, Campus France and the China Scholarship Council, for placement. Candidates who already hold an unconditional admission in a thematic area for the coming semester were exempted from the test and interview in Batch IV.
Batch IV's timeline shows the pace: applications closed on 28 August 2026, the test, first planned for 27 September, was moved to 19 September, and the result has been announced. The next batch will be advertised on HEC's website.
