Sweden Stresses To Enhance Cooperation In Higher Education With Pakistan

There was need to further strengthen bilateral relations between Sweden and Pakistan especially in higher education sector, Ambassador of Sweden in Pakistan Ingrid Johansson Tuesday said while visiting COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI)

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Apr, 2019 ) :There was need to further strengthen bilateral relations between Sweden and Pakistan especially in higher education sector, Ambassador of Sweden in Pakistan Ingrid Johansson Tuesday said while visiting COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI).

The visit was part of efforts to promote exchange of faculty and students between Swedish universities and leading universities of Pakistan, by the Swedish Embassy and the Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education (STINT) in collaboration with CUI, a press release said.

While sharing data, STINT Program Director Dr Hans Pohl said in his presentation based on Scopus Database at CUI that Pakistan's publication volume was approximately one third of Sweden's but is growing more at a fast pace, adding that Co-publications originating among both countries had received high impact of 7.47 on average.

He informed that Pakistan along with Iran and Saudi Arabia were rapidly growing in their research and innovation landscape and that all three countries had maintained their positions through 2015, 2016 and 2017.

Dr Pohl offered CUI to get benefit from the STINT's program portfolio, which included start up initiation grants, grants for dual degree programs, teaching sabbaticals, funding streams for mobility for enhancing research cooperation as well as support for university's internationalization efforts and scholarships.

CUI Rector Prof Dr Raheel Qamar, informed the ambassador, that CUI has benefited immensely from the scholarships and faculty development opportunities offered by Swedish universities.

He further said the CUI was ranked number one in Pakistan as per the TIMES Higher Education (THE) world universities rankings 2019 and Shanghai Academic World Ranking of Universities 2019.

He said the CUI is improving educational services by deploying technology even in remote campuses through Hybrid Teaching.

Prof Dr Raheel Qamar said the university is planning to open new campuses in the South areas of the country in line with its Federal mandate and with cooperation of the Higher Education Commission.

The ambassador of Sweden said, "She was pleased to see a thriving start up culture at CUI that is similar to Sweden where the economy is increasingly relying on small and medium enterprise as well as the ingenuity of young graduates with their innovative ideas".

She also said Pakistanis who have gained 5-10 years of job experience in the Swedish industry need to be allocated appropriate opportunities in the Pakistani job market.

She also indicated the need for sharing Sweden's experience on the triple helix approach and increasing cooperation between the government, industry and academia.

The Swedish guests were also shown various departments of the Islamabad Campus as well as the CUI Central library.