Fill out the NOP Online Application before the deadline!
Changing Lives Across Pakistan
Initiated in 2001, the LUMS National Outreach Programme at LUMS promotes the principles of cultural diversity and inclusion by extending the benefits of world-class education to talented students all over Pakistan. This prestigious scholarship programme focuses on identifying bright students with exceptional Matriculation and FA/FSc results and inducting them into the LUMS undergraduate programmes. The students who qualify as NOP scholars are provided full financial assistance. To date, LUMS has inducted over 1270 NOP scholars, and over 700 have graduated and are out in the world pursuing challenging careers and supporting their families and communities.
NOP Application Deadline
March 16th2021
Find out what the NOP Summer Coaching Session is all about
Connecting Communities
The National Outreach Porgramme prides itself on its diversity. With time, the programme has seen representation from all major provinces including Gilgit Baltistan, FATA and Azad Kashmir. Every year, the count of cities that NOP scholars hail from increases and this is a testament to the deeply rooted nationalism this scholarship embodies.
Our outreach efforts take us from the plains of Southern Punjab to cities such as Rajanpur, Layyah while heading South to the coastline of Sindh in cities like Tando Adam Khan and Mirpur Mathelo. We have also driven across the mountainous regions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit Baltistan and have also reached out to students in Balochistan. It is the culmination of our country-wide outreach efforts that we have seen exponential growth in applications for the NOP Summer Coaching Session every year.
NOP Summer Coaching Session
Important Dates
The NOP Summer Coaching Session Application process 2020-21 is expected to run according to the usual timelines
Outreach News
From the verdant plains of Punjab to the dunes of Balochistan, read about the diverse experiences of the NOP team as they reach out to students in schools and colleges in remote towns and cities.
NOP Events
Trainings, sessions and meetups – read on to find out the exciting happenings at the NOP Centre.
- Sep02
A Tribute to the Pro-Chancellor
Syed Babar Ali, Founding Pro Chancellor of LUMS is a renowned figure who holds the NOP extremely close to his heart. LUMS is indebted to him for his vision, his passion and his support towards the scholarship programme since its inception.
Quick Links
Testimonials
NOP alumni are trail-blazers in a vast array of industries and sectors; some are pursuing higher education at premier institutions worldwide. Here are some stories of the impact of the NOP.
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Syed Hussain DanishBSc Accounting & Finance
Syed Hussain DanishBSc Accounting & FinanceDanish, a bright and passionate student, was always inclined towards numbers and through his hard work, managed to find himself an awed attendee of the NOP Summer Coaching Session. His persistence and diligence secured him admission to his desired BSc Accounting and Finance degree at LUMS. When speaking of his time at the university, Danish gushes with emotion and enthusiasm at how LUMS shaped him as an individual and how wonderful his memories of his alma mater are.
“Life at LUMS or as I like to call it, the LUMS Experience, is the easiest and the toughest to describe at the same time. I say easy because it prepares you for the external world using the best resources and reforms a fresh graduate into a focused professional. I say difficult because after the four year journey ends and you step into the real world, you realise how drastic the transformation has been and you wonder ‘How do I even know this? Which course taught me that?’ The truth is, it was not just a course or a book, it was so much more”
When asked to elaborate, Danish fondly recollects the all-nighters pulled in the computer lab preparing for quizzes, the guest speaker who touched a chord when he described his story, playing squash with students of varied temperaments, networking and strategising to land key roles in society, and conversations over endless cups of tea outside PDC with the most diverse bunch of people he never thought he would be friends
“The LUMS experience is holistic and alters you into a confident, adaptable, empathetic and a future-ready individual, opening the door to an endless world of opportunities. Getting into LUMS has helped me pave my future, to an extent which would not have been possible had it been based on my will and dedication alone. I’m talking about the LUMS NOP Scholarship that changed my life and continues doing so for many dedicated students who bear the will to study but lack the awareness or resources to do so.”
Danish analogises that LUMS turned him into a locksmith and allowed him to craft the very key that would help unlock his potential to the fullest. The academics asked for an endless commitment, pushed him to look at the bigger picture, taught him to seize opportunities regardless of how farfetched they seem and exposed him to the most intelligent minds in Pakistan who were out to conquer the world. He believes that amidst this competitive environment, being selected for exchange programmes in Singapore and Austria as well as graduating on the Dean's Honor List were extremely rewarding events of his life.
After LUMS, Danish’s academic and personal development helped him enter the world of Unilever as a Finance professional. 5 years down the line, he is currently on a stint at the Unilever Global Treasury Center in Switzerland and married to his best friend whom he first met in the Unilever corridors where he was struggling to reinvent the PDC tea experience.
“Saying that education is imperative would be an understatement – it works wonders. It is with this zest that I actively mentor young students and graduates for their university entrance test in the hope that their enthusiasm coupled with a solid university foundation will transform their lives. I am not in the habit of uttering quotes but one of my favorites is: ‘I would like to be remembered for leaving the place a little bit better than I found it’ and this is the underlying impetus behind my everyday life.”
Karrar Hussain JaffarBSc Economics & Mathematics
Karrar Hussain JaffarBSc Economics & MathematicsLocated on the outskirts of Quetta, is the barren valley of Mariabad where the Hazara lead slow-paced lives. These tribal people, living in narrow brick huts speckled along the rugged hillside, typically sell loose cloth, sweaters or tea for their livelihood. However one student, the son of a trader who sold Quaid-e-Azam caps in Mariabad for a living, dared to tread a radically different path.
Karrar Hussain Jaffar transcended the confines of an obscure town in Balochistan, where people rarely educate themselves beyond Matriculation to study at the prestigious Harvard University. His story, a narrative about the wondrous possibilities of equal educational opportunities, is truly inspirational.
“My childhood friends, with whom I spent my youth playing cricket, drive Suzukis and rickshaws in Quetta for a living, while I am a PhD student in the US. I often wonder why God chose me, out of all the people in my community, to get ahead in life” muses Karrar in a humble manner.
Karrar attributes his achievements to his father’s passion for his children’s higher education. He vividly remembers the chilly morning when his father showed him the ad for the LUMS NOP, which aimed to sponsor education and living expenses for capable students who could not have afford to pay.
“I was doing my FSc at Cadet College, Kohat and did not even know a single thing about LUMS at that point in time,” he fondly recollects. “I did not take the Ad seriously because LUMS did not offer engineering, the field I was interested in.”
When he returned back to college from his winter break, he attended a presentation by a LUMS’ faculty member, who introduced students to the NOP. At the end of the presentation the attendees all took a pre-screening exam and a few weeks later, he got a letter from LUMS inviting him to attend sponsored classes for SAT preparation.
During the four weeks he spent rigorously studying for the SATs, he fell in love with LUMS. To him the institution seemed otherworldly; its grand building, spacious classrooms and impressive teachers fascinated him. With utmost dedication, Karrar managed to clear the screening exam at the end of the four-week training and was selected to take the SAT exam, sponsored by the University. After obtaining an impressive score in his SATs, he got admitted in LUMS and was offered a full scholarship along with a monthly stipend.
Karrar graduated on the Dean’s Honor List, with a cumulative grade point average of 3.7 and 3.68 in his majors, Maths and Economics, respectively. A year after graduating, he received a Fulbright scholarship to study in the US.
“I simply told the interview panel that I want to come back to Baluchistan after completing my studies. That’s where my home is; that’s where I belong,”
But perhaps the most memorable moment in his life — an incident he recalls quite animatedly — was when he found out that he made it to Harvard University.
“I had no internet at home in Mariabad so I walked 15 minutes or so to a nearby internet cafe to check my email for Harvard’s decision,” he explains. “When I saw the acceptance email, I just thought it was too good to be true. My mother asked me what Harvard was and my father asked me to wait for potential offers by other universities” he says with a laugh. “It took a while to convince them that I got into the world’s top university.”
Karrar completed his PhD in Economics from the University of Southern California. He wants to increase educational awareness amongst people of Baluchistan. Karrar confesses that most of his family and friends cannot even comprehend what his life was like in the US. As of present, while pursuing a myriad of research interests he is also an Assistant Professor at the Mushtaq Ahmad Gurmani School of Humanities and Social Sciences at LUMS.
Salma BegumBA-LLB
Salma BegumBA-LLBHailing from the vibrant city of Peshawar, Salma had big dreams and knew it was only education that would allow her to fulfill her potential. After attaining the NOP Scholarship, she graduated with a BA-LLB degree from LUMS in 2010 and started her career as a Roadmap Advisor in Adam Smith International. When asked about her journey Salma places paramount importance on focus and dedication for being the keys to success.
“Work without focus leads to only an unstable performance curve with lots of peaks and valleys, it does not yield a consistently improving performance. I thrived in life because of my constant and consistent hard work”
Salma believes LUMS is the beacon for diversity in the country; this is one of its major strengths and this is why it is among the highly acclaimed universities across the country. The academics at LUMS helped her critically evaluate the value system she acquired from living in society and rationally shape it for an individual’s collective improvement.
“LUMS was the most enriching academic experience in my life. I had the freedom to choose from different disciplines which helped me in developing and shaping my personality. The courses are designed to enhance the critical thinking of students which motivates them to jump out from their comfort zones to explore their abilities and talents. It developed my confidence in interactions with family, colleagues and friends and also trained me to learn and gain from them in a short span of time. The courses improved my ability to handle pressure and perform efficiently, in short it made me tough as a person. Thus, the lessons I learned in my university life will stay with me forever.”
Currently Salma is working as an Assistant Director at the National Accountability Bureau in Apex Anti-Corruption Body which is actively involved in policy reforms in important sectors such as Health, Jails, Forest and Education in the country. It is a role she does not take lightly and knows that the steps she takes now can set the foundation for many reforms for the nation. In the future, she intends to be a policy expert working for policy reforms in Pakistan and other developing countries.
“Louisa May Alcott once said ‘far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead’. This quote is something I deeply believe in and I know that no matter our circumstances, we can always aspire to be better”
Zulfiqar AliBSc Economics & Political Science
Zulfiqar AliBSc Economics & Political Science“One of my favourite quotes is that the tragedy of life is that it gives us wisdom only after it has stolen our youth."
Zulfiqar started his BSc Honors degree at LUMS in 2009 and obtained his graduate degree from International Christian University. He occasionally counsels high school students and advises them about career options and academics in general. This came in handy when he was a part of the Shaheen Pakistan Project for a few months, a Harvard-based initiative to create an admissions-advice website for underprivileged students who wish to study abroad.
He currently lives in Tokyo, Japan and works as a Capacity Building and Training Associate at the Asian Development Bank Institute. Though now accustomed to life in a big, metropolitan city, he does remember his initial struggles of being new to a big university such as LUMS, plagued by self-doubt and insecurities.
Considering he only overcame his initial lack of confidence through his academic fervour, he wants to advise younger students to put in effort to research their options, discover their true passion and commit to finding themselves, which will help them discover new horizons.
“You need to figure out what’s the next step of your life. Nobody has everything figured out (at least the people I know don't) but you must have a short term plan and once you do, you need to visualise how to get there.”
He values LUMS for the vast variety of courses it offered that helped to broaden his understanding of the world. He also feels that LUMS taught him to think beyond prejudices and made him more considerate towards everybody around him.
“I miss the cardamom tea the most. I am a Sindhi so if you cut open my veins, you'll probably find more tea than blood. The cardamom tea was a revelation! I would drink four to six cups a day cutting down on food to pay for them. Every night, we would assemble at Khokha around 3:00 AM to resume our whining about courses, CPs, how good we were if only instructors gave us a second chance (most of them did but we would still flunk classes) and all else. Eventually, you grow out of it as life moves forward but I believe, it’s those seemingly redundant talks, and "waste-of-time" exercises that play a great role in getting you there.”
Zulfiqar aims to grow in both academic and employment capacities and knows that wherever he goes, the values imbued by LUMS will stay with him forever.
Tahira TariqueBSc Sociology/Anthropology
Tahira TariqueBSc Sociology/AnthropologyTahira believes she is a classic example of how belonging to a regressive region or lack of awareness cannot stop the industrious from achieving their goals. Hailing from the famed land of Sindhri mangoes, Mirpur Khas, Tahira turned her dreams into reality with hard work and patience.
Looking back on her four years at LUMS, Tahira states that being associated with the university had a tremendous impact on her life.
“From my very first Sociology class, I was challenged to not only think about what is visible on the surface, but what lies in deeper exploration. My professors taught me that in order to fully understand a theory you must challenge it as I often challenged my professors and in doing so, you can better understand the profound meaning of the theory. My four years on campus helped me embrace, welcome and accept challenges in life. They also inspired me to go out and change the world. Just like the NOP scholarship has changed my life”
Moreover, she believes that the education she received at LUMS helped her in all her future accomplishments. She started her career as a Research Associate at Save the Children Foundation; from there onwards she has been associated with the development sector focusing on rural development, community issues, gender sensitisation and human rights. Having an experience of working in non-government organisations for about four years, she has been involved in several community driven social development programs.
She has worked with the Rural Support Program Network as a Monitoring Officer in 13 districts of Sindh and Punjab. During her fieldwork she is simultaneously and systematically studying the structure interactions and collective behaviour of the rural people and applying the gained concepts and theories. As of present, she is pursuing Higher Education in Germany and in the future, she plans to contribute on policy level work in the same sector.
“My advice to students is that the world’s greatest achievers have been those who have always stayed focused on their goals and have been consistent in their efforts.”