LAHORE: (Saturday, July 8, 2023): Punjab University Syndicate’s 1751st chaired by Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Khalid Mahmood, on Saturday recommended Rs 16.619 billion budget for the approval of Senate for the year 2023-24. On the direction of the vice chancellor to increase PU’s international ranking further and socio-economic impact research, the university administration has allocated Rs 264 million, with an increase of Rs 38 million as compared to last year’s amount, as per its policy to promote research culture. According to other salient features of the budget, special students will also be provided with free education along with boarding facilities while students taking admission on sports basis will be provided with free education. The university will continue to waive off tuition fee of Hafiz-e-Quran. Punjab University will provide Rs 247 million scholarships to the students. Moreover, HEC scholarships worth 122 million rupees and PEEF scholarships will also be provided to students. The deficit of Rs 2 billion would be managed by introducing new market based programs, reducing expenditures and adopting austerity measures. On this occasion, the Syndicate members appreciated the efforts of the university. In the budget, Punjab University would continue to provide subsidy of millions of rupees to the students in hostel, transport and internet heads and in addition to the above, subsidy on electricity bills in teaching departments is also being provided. PU has allocated Rs 1.1 billion for development projects.