No fewer than 700 candidates are participating in ongoing interviews for the overseas scholarship scheme (OSS) of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) across the six geopolitical zones of the country.
The OSS team lead for South-South geopolitical zone, Sobomabo West, disclosed this yesterday while speaking to newsmen shortly after the interview session of candidates at the University of Port Harcourt.
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West said while about 500 candidates were being interviewed for Master of Science (MSc) programme, about 180 candidates were going for the Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD) programme.
He said, “The organisers are the Petroleum Technology Development Fund but we use panelists from different universities in Nigeria. We are here to interview candidates for MSc scholarship and also for PhD scholarship.
“We started the programme yesterday and so far, for MSc scholarship, we have been able to interview more than 100 candidates and for PhD, we have been able to interview more than 50 candidates.
“We hope to finish the process on Friday. I don’t have the number off-hand but for MSc, we are hoping to interview up to 500 and for PhD, we are looking at about 180 candidates.
“Most of the candidates must not come to the centre because some of them are in Abuja and Lagos. We have also said that wherever they are, they can attend their interviews. If a candidate that is slated for Port Harcourt is living in Abuja, he can go to the Abuja centre and be interviewed.
“We also have online interviews, but that have not started; That will be after we have finished the physical interviews.
“The scholarship is for disciplines in the oil and gas sector like engineering, geology, environmental science, mechanical engineering and all that.”
Also speaking with journalists, the coordinator, Postgraduate Programmes in the Institute of Petroleum Studies (IPS), University of Port Harcourt, Dr Joseph Abiebibama, lauded PTDF for choosing the University as the centre for the scholarship scheme in South-South zone of the country.
Abiebibama said, “I think it is a laudable development for PTDF to choose the University of Port Harcourt as the centre for the overseas scholarship scheme for the South-South zone.”