University of Massachusetts, Balochistan universities ‘build bridges’

KARACHI: University of Massachusetts and Balochistan universities have signed Consortium University Partnership Memorandum of Agreement.

According to an official press release, US Acting Consul General Chad Peterson presided over the signing ceremony.

The two-year “Building Bridges” partnership links the University of Massachusetts at Amherst with the University of Balochistan, Sardar Bahadur Khan Women’s University Quetta and Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering and Management Sciences.

The partnership will send professors and students from the three participating Balochistan universities to the University of Massachusetts for summer exchanges in 2017. The U.S. State Department is providing $864,000 in financial support.

“Building Bridges creates a network of students, teachers and administrators from all three members of the Balochistan Consortium Partnership to improve participant skills both in and out of the classroom,” said Dr. Peterson.

“It also enhances the quality of education received by students both in Balochistan and at the University of Massachusetts,” he said.

The program is geared toward faculty and students in Management Sciences and Entrepreneurship. “We are excited about working together to build the skills needed to develop business and entrepreneurship curriculums and advanced training methodologies,” said Mike Hannahan, director of the University of Massachusetts Civic Initiative.

“The key is to come up with solutions that work for Pakistani universities,” he said.

“Another key benefit is that students and faculty from Pakistan will study U.S. culture and government to better enable them to discuss how to develop cutting-edge management science and entrepreneurship programming,” said Acting Public Affairs Officer Li Ping Lo.

“Program participants will learn about the United States while developing a deeper appreciation of their own capacities as both educators and leaders,” she said.