Punjab govt committed to promoting education: Mashhood

LAHORE: A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed between Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC) and American Institute of Pakistan Studies (AIPS) to promote cooperation between higher education sector of Punjab and 35 US higher education institutions.
PHEC Chairperson Prof Dr Muhammad Nizamuddin and member executive board AIPS Dr Farhat Haq signed the MoU while Punjab Minister for Education, Culture and Youth Affairs, Rana Mashhood Ahmad Khan was present as chief guest.
Speaking on the occasion, Rana Mashhood said government was committed to promoting higher education in Punjab, adding PHEC had been mandated to bring higher education institutions of Punjab at par with international standards.
Dr Muhammad Nizamuddin said the focus of cooperation with US academia would be on improving the community colleges, skill development education, faculty training, and placement of selected scholars and establishment of Academies of Professional Development by PHEC in Punjab. Both the organisations would work more efficiently and effectively to provide increased services to the universities of Punjab, he added.
While sharing the salient features of cooperation, Director, AIPS, Nadeem Akbar informed that AIPS in collaboration with PHEC would organise training workshops in the area of community colleges where AIPS would invite prominent US Community College Administrators to lead the workshops at Lahore where selected colleges from Punjab would attend the training sessions. A selected group of trainees would be invited to US community colleges for professional meetings and exposure under a three-year community college grant funding programme. The AIPS would use its US institutional membership (consortium of 35 affiliated universities) to encourage and motivate junior and senior research scholars and faculty members to conduct field academic research on Pakistan in affiliation with PHEC.
Dr Farhat Haq appreciated the initiatives of the Punjab government for strengthening higher education. She said AIPS would assist PHEC in finding suitable placements of doctoral and post-doctoral scholars at US universities primarily in Social Sciences and allied fields and AIPS would collaborate on short-term US (Foreign Faculty) hiring for designated universities in Punjab.
Dr Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, member board of trustee, AIPS, underlined the importance of promotion of social sciences to address various socio-economic issues being faced by Pakistani society. He suggested close coordination among provincial cultural department and universities for undertaking collaborative efforts for preservation of rich cultural heritage of Punjab.