By Abdulkadir Mohamed Osman (Cabdi Boqor)

Introduction

First, I seek refuge in to Allah from the mischief of the Cursed Satan and I start with the Name of Allah the most Compassionate the Merciful. Praise be to Allah Alone and my Allah's Peace and Blessing be upon our Holly prophet Mohammad.

After that, there is a Wisdom which says, "Information is Power" because in order to reach a wise decision, to get a clear idea about an issue or to successfully utilize a very important opportunity which may exist, you need a useful information about that issue. That is why it is very important for Companies; Large or small to make a Market research before they go in to a new market and invest allot of money.

It’s possible that a father who is capable enough financially to help his son or daughter study in Pakistan or a person who could pay the tuition fees as well as living costs in this country by himself and would like to study here, can’t take a step forward because of lack of the appropriate and required Information about the educational opportunities which exist in this country. So in order to break that gap and build the linking bridge between those who want to study here and the opportunities, we have decided to take a great deal of interest and effort to prepare this educational report as I have been studying here for a quite enough time to right about it and assist my Somali brothers and sisters who are in touch with this website where aver they are.

WHAT ENCOURAGED ME TO WRITE THIS REPORT

For every thing to happen there is a reason behind it, and for me to write this report was a result of a personal incident that happened to me a while ago. I have requested a full information about the way I can get a University with a good reputation in Pakistan specially those in the Medicine and Engineering fields. But unfortunately the Information I received was that, in order to study Medicine I will need at least $50,000/ for the 5-year period of the Degree and that of Engineering: $10,000/ for the 4-years of the program. It really discouraged me from studying one of these fields because of the cost that was so expensive, although it may seem cheap in the developed world, every University has got its special considerations.

 To my surprise! The reality on the ground was that for any Somali student who is willing to go for the Engineering field and has got the academic background required to study it, was getting it "freely" in a Scholarship way which Somali students used to get through our honorable Somali Embassy in Pakistan. On the other hand in the Medicine field the cost was $1500/ to $3000/ depending upon your luck for the five-year period. -What an opportunity it was!

Although I am delighted with what I have studied but honestly speaking I was quite happy in those days to go in to one of these fields and it could have happened if I wouldn't had received the wrong information. Hence Allah determines every one’s future but it’s obvious how important it is to get the information you need at the right time.

So in order for every Somali who is willing to brighten his/her future through education in this country to get the reliable and Concrete Data, we are contributing and investing allot of resources both time and energy in order to come up with the kind of information that builds a future.

At the end, we Look forward to Allah to give us good rewards both myself who is preparing this report and this website who is publishing it for the benefit of others and I hope allot of people will benefit from the report, so its great honor for me to well come you all to this wonderful educational report. 

HOW THE SOMALI STUDENTS COME TO PAKISTAN

The Somali Students come to Pakistan in to three different ways and they are as follows:

1-     University sponsorship.

As normal, when an international student is going to apply a foreign university, he sends the required documents to his Embassy, directly to the university or through a person who is in that country were he is planning to study. The university than submits the student's educational documents along with the university form to the concerned offices of the Government like: Education Ministry, Interior Ministry, Ministry of foreign affairs and the Higher Education Commission. After a process the student will get an official letter called: The N.O.C. (No Objection Certificate), which states that the Government of Pakistan has got no objection the student to be given the kind of education he requested if he is qualified. Since the university has got the permission from the government to give an admission to that student, it gives the admission letter and sends the previous documents along with the university admission back to the Ministry of foreign affairs so that the student will get the "Study Visa" which he needs to legally come in the country and study here in Pakistan.

 Let me emphasize that this is the best procedure that students should follow because the student will never worry about over-stay charges since he/she will be given Extension Visa freely when ever his/her Visa expires until the successful completion of the education. First and foremost in order to apply a University, you need documents to submit to the university for admission considerations and they are as follows:

Documents Required from the Student

A- Copies of the valid passport

B- Copies of the High Secondary School Certificate (HSSC) as well as the Equivalence Certificate that proves that the student has taken 12yrs of basic education (Elementary, Intermediate and Secondary education) and that his Secondary School Certificate is equivalent to the High Secondary School Certificate of Pakistan. The Inter Board Committee of Chairmen under the Ministry of education, Government of Pakistan issues the Letter and it is applied through our honorable Somali Embassy in Islamabad that recommends the student through a letter, which it sends to the Ministry.

C- University Degree and Transcript that is if the student is university graduate and wants to apply Masters or above

D- Recommendation letters written by different people or organizations those know you well.

E- Number of recent passport size photographs, usually 9 or more, but its recommended that you send the “Negative” along with the photos so that if more are needed it will be manageable.

F- Copies of the University request form.

2- Individuals and private offices that Apply Visas for the People

 The 2nd way which the Somali students as well as Foreigners in general use to come to Pakistan is through individuals and private offices both Somali and foreigners that apply visas for the people. These offices know how the job is done in these government offices, but they mostly apply visas which can become easy for them, whether they get Business Visa, Visit Visa or the Study visa but the question which you will have no answer for is "If asked!” which University has sponsored your study visa? But the worst case happens when the student takes a visit, or business visa instead of the study visa, because he will have no right to be given an admission with any visa other than the study one and will eventually change the other types of visas that he may have in to Study visa after allot of tension, stress and huge amount of money. Although all these visas what ever their type might be, are an opportunity to come to the country.

On the other hand, these offices take $300/ to $500/ depending upon your negotiation skills to apply and get the visa for you and the validity period of the visa may be 3-months or 6-months depending upon what you get.

3-With Tabliq Mullahs coming to Pakistan

The third way, which few Somali students as well as many Foreigners in general use to come to Pakistan, is through Tabliq Mullahs who came here for da'wah and for the sake of Allah. These students travel with the Tabliq by paying half (1/2) of the original cost of the journey (we are not discussing whether its good or Bad Ethically). They leave them alone after coming inside the country than decide to stay in the country for a while and eventually they start applying universities. Mostly they apply Islamic Universities whose tuition fees are very cheap or no fees required at all, in addition to the admission of the University they also get some pocket money, although after 11-Septermber the financial centers of many Charity Islamic Organization who used to help these universities have been shut down, and as a result of that most of these universities who used to pay pocket money have also stopped paying it because they them selves were not getting it.

As the Legal stay of these students and many others are concerned who came in this country for the hope of going to America, Canada, Europe and Australia through the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) in Islamabad, they use the UN-Card for refugees if not than the NARA-Card (National Aliens Registration Authority) is their second option or they stay illegally and take “Go-Home” while Leaving the Country.

Wabillahi Towfiiq

Prepared By: Abdulkadir Mohamed Osman (Cabdi Boqor).
BBA (Horns), MBA (in Progress)
E-Mail: [email protected]

More to Come……