Financing for equity in higher education
1. Education resources to subnational governments
2. Education resources to institutions
3. Education resources to students
4. Support for students' living costs
Introduction
Key financing indicators (UIS Data)
The gross enrolment ratio for tertiary education for both sexes is 10.86% (UIS 2024 estimates). The initial government funding per tertiary student as a percentage of GDP per capita is 95.12 (UIS 2023 estimates). No data is found regarding the initial household funding per tertiary student as a percentage of GDP per capita.
Tuition-free status
Public tertiary education in Pakistan is not tuition-free. Pakistan’s Constitution (Article 25A) and the 2012 Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act guarantee free education for children roughly 5-16 years old, focusing on primary and secondary levels, not tertiary. Furthermore, public universities publish regular tuition schedules and have a national feerefund policy issued by the Higher Education Commission (HEC), which presupposes fees are charged rather than waived.
Governance
Higher education financing is managed by both federal and provincial authorities. At the federal level, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) serves as the principal body responsible for planning, regulating, and financing higher education, allocating federal grants to public universities.
After the 18th Constitutional Amendment, provincial governments assumed primary responsibility for financing and administering education within their jurisdictions, including higher education, by providing recurrent and development funding to provincial public universities through provincial budgets. Two provincial governments have also established their own higher education commissions: Sindh has constituted the Sindh Higher Education Commission, and Punjab has constituted the Punjab Higher Education Commission, both under their respective provincial laws to oversee and fund higher education within the province.
1. Education resources to subnational governments
The Higher Education Commission (HEC) receives a federal budget allocation and directly disburses funds to public universities without routing money through provincial governments as unconditional or formula-based intergovernmental transfers. Provinces are primarily funding their public universities through their own budgets. Federal HEC funding has largely ceased for provincially chartered universities since 2024.
2. Education resources to institutions
Funding for private universities in the absence of public institutions
There is no funding for private universities when no public university is available.
Allocation and equity
The Higher Education Commission (HEC) distributes funding to public universities through a rules-driven mechanism based on lump-sum transfers, mainly as 65% foundational grant, 20% needs-based grant, and 15% performance grant allocated to universities. The foundational grant factors enrolment by field (engineering and medicine weighted three times arts and humanities), levels (PhD ranked highest), and efficiency metrics like faculty student ratios (1:18-30). Needs grants, comprising 20% overall, contain equity elements: 5% addressing regional or locational disadvantage (larger coefficients for remote regions like Gilgit) and 3% offsetting income gaps through need-based scholarships.
In contrast, funding arrangements at the provincial level differ across provinces: in some cases, provincial governments directly disburse grants to universities, while in others (for example, Sindh and Punjab) this responsibility lies with provincial higher education commissions.
3. Education resources to students
Admission for vulnerable groups
The 2002 Federal Universities Ordinance and the 2020 Undergraduate Education Policy do not establish specific admission criteria for defined vulnerable groups such as women, persons with disabilities, minorities, or other protected categories. Instead, it adopts a universal, non-discriminatory admissions framework under which universities are open to everyone and explicitly prohibit exclusion on social or identity-based grounds.
Scholarships, grants and loans for vulnerable groups
The 2002 Federal Universities Ordinance explicitly provides for financial support as an integral part of higher education functions. It requires universities to institute financial aid programmes specifically for students who lack the financial means to pay, with the clear policy objective of ensuring that admission and access to university education and its associated opportunities are based on academic merit rather than economic capacity. At the same time, the Ordinance qualifies this obligation by stating that such financial aid is to be provided to the extent considered feasible by the Senate given the resources available, and it expressly allows universities to institute self-finance schemes, provided that these do not cover more than 10% of the total number of candidates in any on-campus taught course or research-based programme of study.
4. Support for students’ living costs
Transportation
The Need-Based Scholarship Program for 2025 supports admitted undergraduate students at selected public universities by covering limited travel expenses throughout the duration of the program. Similarly, the Ehsaas Scholarship Programme for Undergraduate Students provides a stipend for living expenses, helping students to cover transportation expenses. Both are contingent upon students’ continued enrolment.
Provincially, Punjab’s student bus card scheme offers subsidised transport via smart cards.
Accommodation
The Need-Based Scholarship Program for 2025 and the Ehsaas Scholarship Programme for Undergraduate Students provide a stipend for living expenses, helping students to cover their accommodation. Both are contingent upon students’ continued enrolment.
Textbooks
The Need-Based Scholarship Program for 2025 for admitted undergraduate students in selected public universities covers support for academic materials, subject to continued enrolment.
Similarly, in some situations, the Ehsaas Scholarship Programme for Undergraduate Students provides extra assistance for learners with special needs or individuals who need help with additional academic costs, including books and learning materials resources.
This profile has been reviewed by Dr. Muhammad Rafiq-uz-Zaman.
