I am pleased to announce that the Australian Government will provide $39 million to support the package agreed with the President of Pakistan in June for 500 scholarships for Pakistani nationals to study in Australia.
With the Prime Minister of Pakistan, His Excellency Shaukat Aziz, I witnessed today the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) confirming the new scholarship programme.
Over the next five years 200 Australian Development Scholarships will be offered through the Government's international aid agency, AusAID, for postgraduate study at Australian universities at Masters and PhD level, which will focus on areas such as governance, education, transnational crime prevention, trade, health and agriculture.
The remaining 300 scholarships will be part of the Australian Department of Education, Science and Training's Endeavour Programme which enables high achieving students, scholars and professionals to undertake study, research or professional development in Australia. They are open to all fields of study.
The scholarship package has been designed to support Pakistan's development, education and research needs. The first students under the new expanded program of scholarships will begin their studies in 2006.
The five-year scholarship programme will build people-to-people and institution-to-institution links between our two countries. To build on these relationships and forge a long-term partnership between our countries, Australia will establish an alumni association to partner the scholarship package.