About 1,000 foreign scholarships to Japan, South Korea and China have been allocated for high school diploma holders, an official at the Higher Education Ministry's General Administration of Scholarships has said. The three Asian countries have been chosen because of their advancement in technology and flexibility in dealing with diploma holders on scholarships, the official was quoted by Al-Watan daily as saying. Application for the scholarships will be received by the Ministry starting Saturday. The last day for receiving applications is the third day of Ramadan, the official said. Students who meet the conditions outlined on the Ministry's website can apply online. The official said the Ministry halted scholarships for diploma holders in the previous (third) phase because it faced problems with some universities that required diploma holders to have high grades while most applicants scored below 70 percent. The official said accepted students will be sent to study pharmacology, applied medical sciences including nursing, radiology, health sciences, and medical technology, in addition to engineering, computer, basic sciences – mathematics, physics, and chemistry – accounting, e-commerce, insurance, finance and marketing. __
