The Ehsaas Scholarship Is Now BISP, and the Portal Is Closed

Pakistan's largest undergraduate scholarship for poor students is no longer called the Ehsaas scholarship. On the Higher Education Commission's own site it is listed as BISP Scholarships for Undergraduates.

We opened HEC's pages on 21 August 2026 to check what a student can actually do today.

The answer is on HEC's own How to Apply page, in one line: "The scholarship portal is currently closed."

What HEC says, and what the guides say

This matters more than usual, because the pages telling students to apply right now are also telling them numbers we could not find on HEC's site.

We are not going to tell you which stipend figure is right, because we do not know. We can tell you what HEC publishes, which is Rs 40,000 per annum and the semester tuition fee as per actual.

On the income limit we are being blunt: we could not find one on HEC's pages at all. The Rs 45,000 figure is repeated across many sites and appears on none of the authority's own pages that we read.

That is not proof it is wrong. It is a reason not to plan your family's year around it.

Why we will not publish an income figure

On most subjects, quoting a widely repeated number with a caveat would be reasonable. Not this one.

This scholarship exists for the poorest households in Pakistan. HEC's own page gives the reason: only 0.4 per cent of children from the lowest income quintile are enrolled in higher education, against a national average of 10 per cent.

A wrong income threshold on a page like this does one of two things. It tells a family earning slightly more that they should not bother applying, when they might have qualified. Or it tells a family they qualify when they do not, and they build a year around money that never arrives.

Neither is a mistake worth making to look complete. So the honest answer stands: ask your university's financial assistance office.

Who HEC says is eligible

These conditions come from HEC's eligibility page.

You must be:

1. Newly admitted to an HEC recognised public sector university.
2. In financial need, with documentation to support it.
3. Admitted on merit alone, meeting the institution's criteria.
4. Enrolled in an HEC approved degree programme.
5. Within the age limits your institution sets for undergraduate admission.

You are excluded if you:

• Already receive another scholarship or a continuous grant.
• Are in a distance learning programme, or an affiliated college, public or private.
• Got in on a self-sustain, self-support or self-finance basis, or into an evening programme.
• Are doing a two year post secondary qualification, an associate degree, or a master's.
• Hold an associate degree and have joined a lateral undergraduate programme at the fifth semester.

The self-finance exclusion is the one that catches most people. A seat bought outside the merit list does not qualify, however genuine the need behind it.

The dates on HEC's own page have not moved since 2021

Here is the part that should make you cautious about every figure above, including the ones we have quoted.

HEC's eligibility page describes applicants as "newly admitted students of Fall 2021 session".

That is five years old. We are reporting what the authority publishes, and what the authority publishes is a criterion written for a session that ended long ago.

So when we say Rs 40,000 per annum is HEC's figure, we mean exactly that and no more. It is on HEC's page. Whether it is the figure in force for the next intake is a different question, and the same page that gives it is sitting next to one that still says Fall 2021.

This is why the answer to "what is the current stipend" is a phone call to your university, not a website, including this one.

Two addresses that do not work

While checking, we tested the addresses that circulate in guides and on WhatsApp.

ehsaas.hec.gov.pk does not resolve. Neither does scholarships.hec.gov.pk. These are not slow or blocked, they simply do not exist as working addresses, tested on 21 August 2026.

The working path is hec.gov.pk itself, under Scholarships and Grants. Note the oddity there too: the programme is titled BISP Scholarships for Undergraduates while its web address still contains the word Ehsaas, which is why searching either name leads to the same place.

If a page sends you to a scholarship portal that will not load, that is usually why. It is not your connection.

What to do instead of waiting for the portal

The portal being closed does not mean nothing is available. It means this route is not open today.

Go to your university's financial assistance office. These scholarships are processed through the universities, and that office knows what is open, what is closing, and what internal support exists that never appears online.

Ask about the other schemes. HEC lists several undergraduate programmes separately, including need based schemes and ones specific to Gilgit-Baltistan and Gwadar students. They have their own criteria and their own windows.

Get your admission settled first. Almost every rule above depends on being newly admitted on merit to a public sector university, so the admission is the thing that unlocks the application. Our guides to the admission calendar and the routes open to A Level students cover getting that far.

If your household already receives BISP support, our guide to checking BISP eligibility and payments on 8171 covers that side separately.

What we could not verify

Everything attributed to HEC above was read on hec.gov.pk on 21 August 2026, across its scholarship programme, eligibility, financial support and how to apply pages.

We could not verify a family income threshold, a monthly stipend figure, the number of scholarships awarded, or any application deadline. None appeared on the pages we read.

We could not verify the claim that the scheme runs at 98 public sector universities, which several sites state.

We did not apply, and we did not speak to a financial assistance office. This is a reading of what the authority publishes, not a test of the process.

If HEC's pages are updated, they are right and this page is out of date. That is what the date on it is for.

Questions readers are asking

Is the Ehsaas undergraduate scholarship still running?

It is listed on HEC's site as BISP Scholarships for Undergraduates. Its How to Apply page states that the scholarship portal is currently closed.

How much does it pay?

HEC's financial support page gives Rs 40,000 per annum plus the semester tuition fee as per actual. Other sites quote Rs 6,000 a month, which we could not verify.

What is the income limit?

HEC does not publish one on the pages we read. The Rs 45,000 a month figure quoted widely online does not appear on them, so ask your university rather than relying on it.

Can self-finance students apply?

No. HEC excludes admission on a self-sustain, self-support or self-finance basis, along with evening programmes, distance learning and affiliated colleges.

Can private university students apply?

The criteria specify a public sector HEC recognised university, and exclude affiliated colleges whether public or private.

Why will the scholarship website not open?

The addresses circulated in guides, ehsaas.hec.gov.pk and scholarships.hec.gov.pk, do not resolve. Use hec.gov.pk under Scholarships and Grants.

Where do I actually apply?

Through your university's financial assistance office. That is the body that processes these, and it will know what is open when the portal is not.