Author Topic: UK & Higher Education Links programme  (Read 1946 times)

Offline iram

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UK & Higher Education Links programme
« on: May 11, 2010, 12:07:48 PM »
UK & Higher Education Links programme

Islamabad, May 11: British High Commissioner Adam Thomson said on Monday that his country would extend every possible support to strengthen linkages between education sectors of the two countries.

Speaking at an event to celebrate Higher Education Commission-British Council (HEC-BC) Joint Higher Education Links programme, he said no country could flourish without developing its educational system. He hoped that Pakistan-UK partnership would result in the promotion of education sector.

Mr Thomson said his country was the largest investor in Pakistan and "we want top Pakistani students to study in UK".

"The challenge to provide better educational facilities to Pakistani students is not smaller one and UK will continue this partnership to develop the better relations," he said, adding that Britain provided more opportunities to Pakistani students than the previous year.

The high commissioner inaugurated the exhibition where 35 HEC-BC Joint Higher Education Links and other projects displayed their work.

On the occasion, HEC Chairman Dr Javaid R. Laghari said the joint linkages programme had resulted in close collaboration between Pakistani and the British universities.

"Major objective of this collaborative programme was to provide opportunities to the Pakistani universities to enhance the research and training capabilities of their researchers by linking up with partner higher education institutions in the UK," he said.

The HEC-BC linkage programme has resulted in the establishment of 50 links, he said.

"This joint collaborative endeavour between Pakistani and the British universities has brought the research community of both the countries closer to each other through joint supervision of research scholars, exchange of faculty members, development of new academic courses and programmes, convening of workshops for training of faculty and for initiation research in the field of mutual interest," he added.

The programme started in 2006 to enhance the research and training capacity of Pakistani higher education institutions so that they could contribute to the institutional capacity building of the higher education sector of the country.
The programme is funded by the HEC and managed by the British Council in Pakistan. The council has built 50 research and capacity building links between Pakistani and UK institutions under the phase 1 and 2 of the programme.

The programme is in line with the British Council's objective to increase UK's contribution to international co-operation in research and innovation.

The council in collaboration with the HEC also launched INSPIRE (International Strategic Partnerships in Research and Education) - Pakistan Strategic Partnerships 2010.

According to Nishat Riaz, BC head of programmes, the aim of INSPIRE - Strategic Partnerships is to promote sustainable academic and international research partnerships at institutional level between Pakistan and the UK. App