British Council, HEC Agrees To Collaborate On Pak-UK Education Gateway

British Council in Pakistan and the Higher Education Commission (HEC) signed a letter of intent (LOI) to collaborate on the Pakistan-UK Education Gateway which was announced in London earlier this year.

ISLAMABAD, April 3 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 3rd Apr, 2018 ) :British Council in Pakistan and the Higher Education Commission (HEC) signed a letter of intent (LOI) to collaborate on the Pakistan-UK Education Gateway which was announced in London earlier this year.

The LOI comes following workshops and discussions between the HEC and potential partners in the UK to leverage international research and education programmes to help advance the quality of higher education in Pakistan, a press release on Tuesday said.

The increasing prevalence of quality research and partnerships has led national and international education providers to consolidate their efforts to develop strong partnerships of policy learning, in which both UK and Pakistan stakeholders can co-develop solutions.

By 2050, the HEC aims to increase gross enrolment by 15 percent, PhD faculty by 40 percent, the number of universities to 300 and a total enrolment to 7.1 million. Given the enormity of HEC's goals, a partnership like the Pak-UK Gateway will play a vital role in achieving these ambitious targets.

Over the years, Pakistan has vastly benefitted from the UK Education Sector through British Council. From knowledge exchange and leadership development programmes, to student and teacher training, scholarships and research collaborations, the UK education sector has assisted in improving the higher education sector in Pakistan.

The gateway aims to facilitate comprehensive programmes to help build the capacity of higher education institutions. The six main areas for collaboration as identified in the LOI include Innovative and Collaborative Research, Higher Education Leadership, Quality Assurance and Standard Setting, Distance Learning, International Mobility and Transnational Education.

At the event, Dr Mukhtar Ahmed, Chairman HEC said: "We are honoured and proud to collaborate with the UK to advance the quality of higher education in Pakistan. Furthermore, we are introducing 'Citizen Engagement Program', a 3-credit hour mandatory course in all public universities of Pakistan to make citizen engagement a strategic priority for the HEC." Rosemary Hilhorst, British Council Country Director in Pakistan said: Through this partnership we continue to bring the UK's knowledge and expertise to Pakistan and supporting HEC in their ambition to develop and build the capacity of higher education institutions in the country.

This marks the next steps and in helping us realise the goals we all have for the Gateway. The British Council in Pakistan in collaboration with the HEC has been supporting the achievement of higher education road map for over a decade.

Enhancing the access, improving quality and institutional capacity of the sector have been the Primary objectives of joint programmes. Over these years, the British Council has designed 23 UK Leadership programmes through which over 80 percent of vice chancellors have been trained.

54 percent of UK universities and 80 percent of Pakistani public universities have been involved in institutional partnership resulting in improvement in research and faculty development. At present there are over 45000 students in Pakistan getting UK qualifications.