PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Education Foundation (KPEF) will award 224 scholarships to students perusing their BS and MPhil studies in universities across the province through a digitised and transparent process.

A statement issued here said that the foundations had received total of 3,669 applications from across the province of which the scholarships were given to only 224 students due to limited resources.

The applicants included 2,935 undergraduates of BS programmes and 734 students of postgraduate, MS studies.

About 122 scholarships were given to BS students including 64 male and 58 female and 98 to MS/MPhil scholars including 49 male and as many female applicants.

The managing director of KPEF, Zariful Maani, said that special attention was given to marginalised groups during the process. Out of 482 orphan applicants, 77 were selected and among 285 Huffaz-i-Quran, 26 were awardedscholarships.

He said that the ratio between applicants and recipients of scholarships was very low, though majority of the applicants were talented and deserving. However, they could not be entertained due to limited resources.

To provide support to the remaining applicants, the foundation has also started `adopt a scholar programme` under which donations will be collected within the country and abroad.

The donors will be provided complete details of the scholars they support.

Mr Maani said that the entire scholarship programme was completely digitised to ensure transparency, efficiency and merit. He said that scholarships were provided to students of 30 top-ranked universities across the country including Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute (GIKI), National University for Science and Technology (Nust), Fast-National University, Quaid-iAzam University, Islamabad, University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar, National College of Arts and others with the collaboration of the respective institutions.