Higher Education Commission (HEC) Chairman Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman has announced 50 more linkages in both basic and applied research with British universities to enhance research and training capacity of higher education institutions.
He was addressing a ceremony organised by the British Council in collaboration with the HEC jointly celebrating the success of Higher Education Links (HEL) Programme Phase I.
The HEL is a partnership between HEC and British Council and is aimed at contributing towards the institutional capacity building of the higher education sector in Pakistan.
Initiated in 2004, the HEL Phase I consisted of 15 three-year partnerships between UK and Pakistani universities. These links were recently completed whereas Phase II HEL Programme kicked off in 2006 under which 35 links are now operational in various subject areas like pure sciences, social sciences, health sciences, environment and engineering.
An official of British Council told ‘The News’ that one linkage required an investment of 31,000 pounds. “It includes faculty links, workshops and research collaborations,” she said.
Stressing the need to sustain efforts made in the higher education sector, Dr. Rahman said that children were the real wealth of a country. “Concerted efforts are required to unleash their creative potential through higher education,” he said, adding that all problems, be it terrorism or poverty, could be eliminated only with education.
Specifying the areas in which academic collaboration could be beneficial for both countries, he said that exchange of knowledge on how to transform local raw material into value added products and enhancing research in industrial sector could bring both countries even closer.
He also expressed keen interest for developing education links in distance learning and training of technicians at UK universities. “Teams of experts providing training on how to further improve the higher education sector could also be very useful,” he said and suggested more academic facilities for PhD students for conducting part of their research in UK.
Taking pride in positive feedback from national and international communities on efforts made to improve the higher education sector, Dr. Rahman said that results of past few years were quite positive. “Our focus now is to improve the general environment in higher education so that fresh graduates do not hesitate in adopting research as their careers,” he pointed out.
He said that massive activity was going on in the HEC that included access to digital library, e-book programme launched a few months ago and satellite lecturing in which experts from different fields abroad lecture students in Pakistani universities.
Dr. Rahman said that currently there were 2,500 Pakistani students doing their PhDs in different countries. “This year, about 265 students would return after completion of their doctorate degree whereas 600 more would come back next year.”
Providing an overview of HEL, British Council (Islamabad) Director Nasir Kazmi said that under the arrangement several new courses and programmes had been developed to strengthen research culture and train faculties. “Through this programme, we were able to identify research areas in addition to diagnosing constraints in way of research.”
British Council (Pakistan) Director Sue Beaumont called for sustainability of those links as exchange of knowledge and ideas were beneficial to both countries. She said that under the Prime Minister’s Initiative for International Education (PMI2) started by Tony Blair, there would be eight research cooperation grants awarded next month.
Earlier in the morning, British Council organised a learning workshop for HEL teams which was followed by the success celebrations ceremony attended by 50 HEL teams from across the country, heads of local universities and senior management of HEC and private sector organizations working in the higher education sector.
Dr. Rahman also distributed souvenirs to 15 linkage coordinators from different universities and later watched a round of slideshows prepared by the link teams of HEC and British Council for HEL Phase I.