The Higher Education Commission (HEC) and the British Council (BC) on Monday signed an agreement to collaborate for the promotion of International Higher Education – Knowledge Exchange. HEC Executive Director Dr Sohail Naqvi and British Council Pakistan Country Director David Martin signed the agreement. HEC Chairman Dr Javaid R Laghari was also present.
International Knowledge Exchange initiatives at higher education institutions (HEIs) have proven that knowledge exchange work have a direct impact on the social and economic development of a country. Therefore, many universities in the UK and Pakistan are now engaged in knowledge-exchange collaborations, a press release issued by the HEC said.
It added that the project will cover four areas of work, the first being knowledge exchange (KE) national strategy development support, aimed at supporting the HEC in the development of a national strategy and a five-year strategic plan on higher education sector’s KE programme.
Developing Institutional Strategy for Knowledge Exchange (DISKE) grants will embed the concept of KE at the institutional level. The HEC and the BC will work with leaders (including vice chancellors, deans, registrars and heads of department) in Pakistan’s HEIs to develop and implement KE strategies in collaboration with their partner institutions in the UK.
Then, there is the development of a training programme for the staff of the newly-established Office of Research Innovation and Commercialisation (ORIC) at universities in partnership with a UK institution, the press release said.
A network of those UK and Pakistani partner institutions will be created which would specialise in a specific academic or industrial sector. This network of universities will showcase successful collaboration on knowledge exchange between universities and the business or the social sector.