Every year the National Outreach Programme (NOP) Centre plans its annual outreach with the objective of not just educating bright yet underprivileged students across Pakistan, but also promoting the message of higher education. Students are informed of how they can apply to the NOP Summer Coaching Session and how that places them on the right track for eventual admission to the LUMS Undergraduate programme on 100% scholarship. In lieu of the same, visits are planned by the outreach team in all major provinces and cities of Pakistan, reaching out to the government and semi-government institutions.
This year, the NOP team kicked off their outreach visits from Abbottabad, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Founded by Major James Abbot, the city is a historic one and boasts an array of educational institutions. The team conducted visits in Haripur, Mansehra, Shinkiari, Batrasi and Murree, visiting 20 colleges and reaching out to more than 500 students from September 23-27, 2019.
Some of the highlights in this first stint were the visits and presentations made to cadet colleges, where students from various ethnicities and cultural heritage were found. Furthermore, walk-in sessions were also conducted in colleges where prior appointments had not particularly been set – seeing the stellar reputation of the LUMS NOP, these colleges warmly welcomed the team and facilitated the session.
As with all such visits, a process of feedback was maintained with all the focal persons of the colleges visited. Lubna Adeem, Assistant Professor at the Government Postgraduate College for Women, Haripur commented that the session was extremely useful and would surely help students avail higher education opportunities. Mr. Zubair Ahmed, Vice Principal at the Peace College, Mansehra, praised the session and pledged his support to the NOP cause. Mr. Ibrar Shah, Principal at the New Shaheen College Shinkiari, lauded the efforts of LUMS in reaching out to talented students in the area.
With the high quality of students found in this region LUMS hopes to see a number of brilliant applications for the NOP Summer Coaching Session this year.
