HEC, US discuss admission of Pakistani scholars under knowledge corridor
ISLAMABAD: Admission Directors of Nine US universities have visited the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and met Dr. Fateh Marri, Executive Director, HEC and other senior officers to discuss possibilities of institutional agreements for admission and placement of Pakistani scholars in the US universities under the US-Pakistan Knowledge Corridor.
Talking to the delegates, Dr. Marri appreciated the cooperation of US universities in promoting higher education and research culture in Pakistan, a press release on Wednesday said.
He introduced the Admission Directors of visiting US universities to the US-Pakistan Knowledge Corridor, urging them to explore the possibilities of institutional arrangements to facilitate the potential researchers in securing admissions and get placed in the US universities.
He revealed that the initiative aims to increase the number of faculty in tertiary education institutions with highest academic qualifications to improve the quality of teaching and research to prepare self-reliant, problem solving scholars.
He said HEC had been negotiating agreements with top US universities to achieve the targets of placement of 1500 Pakistani students in PhD programmes at ranked US universities under the US-Pakistan Knowledge Corridor (Phase I).
He said these efforts had resulted in partnerships and formal Documents of Understanding (DoUs) between HEC and the US universities to support this initiative.
In her remarks, Noor Amna Malik, Adviser Human Resource Development, HEC hoped that the meeting would help the two sides understand each other and decide the working modalities.
She added that it would further help exercise ‘match-making’ to harmonize the possible agreements between the HEC and the visiting US universities with their respective requirements.
She informed the delegation that HEC had signed Documents of Understanding with a number of US universities, while DoUs with several other universities were under discussion.
She said the main objectives of the initiative was to enable the academically qualified 10,000 Pakistani students or faculty to pursue PhD studies in US universities in selected fields. - APP