Deakin University’s first ever Deakin Week in Pakistan successfully concluded on 8th November 2019. The Deakin Week in Pakistan goes beyond showcasing Deakin’s strengths; it demonstrates the University’s unique relationship with Pakistan. For nearly 20 years, Deakin has been one of Australia’s largest beneficiaries of Pakistan outbound students. These students have worked hard and achieved incredible success in a variety of fields, helping to grow Deakin’s name and reputation.
Deakin Week in Pakistan illustrates how partners’ expertise, knowledge and networks can be enriched through regular engagement with Deakin. This was highlighted through professional development, internationalising curricula, collaborative research pathways and global citizenship initiatives. With the theme ‘Creating Connections and Partnerships Deakin Week in Pakistan aimed to strengthen Deakin’s connection with Pakistan through engaging all partners, agents and other stakeholders.
The largest delegation of Deakin’s faculty members ever to visit Pakistan, consisting representatives of various departments such as Health, Business and Law and Science, Engineering and Built Environment and Arts and Educations actively participated at these events and freely interacted with students and media sharing common areas for collaboration and partnerships. Representatives of Australian High Commission Office, members of Islamabad and Lahore Chamber of Commerce and senior management of public and private educational institutes also keenly participated in events.
As part of the first ever Deakin Week in Pakistan, the following public events were held in Lahore and Islamabad where select audience participated through prior registration and screening.
The Deakin Engage series involved a sequence of lectures and events promoting the work and thoughts of Pakistani and Australian public intellectuals, opinion leaders, academics, political and community leaders. The first event of this series was held at PC Lahore in partnership with The Lahore Chamber of Commerce. The second event of this series was conducted at Marriott Islamabad in partnership with Islamabad Chamber of Commerce.
The Friends of Deakin Dinner was organized to bring on board alumni, partners and other stakeholders on one platform to further strengthen partnerships and create more connections. The first Friends of Deakin Dinner was successfully organized in Lahore on 5th November at PC Hotel and the second event of the series was held on 7th November with an impressive audience at Serena Hotel.
Professor Jo Williams, Associate Head of School (Research), School of Health and Social Development, Deakin University delivered the inaugural Alfred Deakin Oration on the topic “Is obesity the greatest risk to health in the developing world?” at Pakistan’s Institute of Health Sciences. She was joined by Dr Kithsiri Edirisinghe, CEO, Co-Founder, Director at IIHS institute in Sri Lanka who spoke about “Technologically driven nursing education in the developing region to mitigate burden of disease”. The Deakin-IIHS partnership has provided many opportunities for nursing education access in the South Asian region, and both institutes aspire to expend this model of co-operation to the benefit of Pakistan.
The successful conduct of Deakin Week in Pakistan has set new precedent for others to follow. It has helped in strengthening the existing networks and creating new partnerships. The series of events provided an ideal platform to bring closer Australian and Pakistani Academia and business community.
