President for enhanced Pak-UK collaboration in higher education, research – Pakistan Observer

Zubair Qureshi

President Dr Arif Alvi has called for enhancing bilateral collaboration between Pakistan and the United Kingdom to improve the quality and standards of higher education in the country.

He emphasized that improvement in the education sector would open up new avenues in the fields of health, agriculture and Artificial Intelligence.

The president, addressing an event on Pak-UK Education Gateway, said the UK had always been supporting Pakistan, particularly in the fields of education and health.

The Gateway Programme aims to enhance partnership between the higher education sectors of Pakistan and the UK in the areas of innovative and collaborative research, higher education leadership, quality assurance and standard setting, distance learning, international mobility and transnational education.

President Alvi said since partition, the UK had been the first destination for Pakistanis to get education which also emerged as foundation of learning. Even currently, around 6,000 Pakistani students were studying there, he added.

The president also spoke high of the British Council’s previous initiative of Alif Ailan to promote STEM education in Pakistan.

He appreciated the contributions of UK government towards the development of education sector of Pakistan.

The president emphasized the need for enhancing the number of graduates to meet the national and global demand for skilled professionals, particularly in the field of Information Technology.

In his address, Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mahmood said British Council had been partnering with Pakistan which even further strengthened during the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said with a vision for an exponential growth in higher education and faculty exchange between the two countries, the Gateway was a commendable initiative.

Mentioning the allocation of Rs 123 billion for high education in the last budget and provision of scholarships to youngsters, the minister said the government was also focusing on skill development of the academia.

Chief Executive of the British Council Scott McDonald appreciated the remarkable achievements by the HEC under the Gateway program and said the education had always been a priority in the Pak-UK cooperation.

He said the bilateral cooperation under the Gateway initiative would reinvigorate the higher education sector in Pakistan while focusing on multiple subjects like climate change, strategic development and others.

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