Executive Director, Higher Education Commission (HEC) Dr. Shaista Sohail on Tuesday said it was high time to usher a new era of collaboration with the partner countries to promote tertiary education, joint research endeavours and student exchange programmes.
She stated this while addressing an opening ceremony of the 4th Edition of Higher Education and Research Online Meeting of the Franco-Pakistani Institutions, a four-day event organised by the Embassy of France.
The event is featured on thematic webinars of Engineering Sciences, Agriculture, Environment, Information Technology, Economics, Business and Management, Political Sciences, Social Sciences, Art, Design, Fashion, Gastronomy, and Tourism.
Around 18 top-ranked French universities and 17 Pakistani universities are participating in the event to share their research programmes.
Dr. Shaista welcomed the participating delegates from French educational institutions and hoped that the mutual collaboration would turn into a strategic partnership to gain broader benefits for Pakistani universities and scholars.
She underlined that HEC was executing three scholarship programmes, including Overseas Scholarship Programme, Master’s and Doctorate scholarships for Engineering students, and scholarships for students of Balochistan, with an aim to enhance access to higher education for young Pakistanis.
She informed the participants that HEC, since 2007, facilitated 815 scholars to earn their Master’s and Doctoral degrees from top-ranked French universities. Out of 815 scholarship awardees, 653 have completed their doctoral and master degrees in the last 11 years.
“The higher education and research work are of vital importance for socio-economic development of a country in this modern era,” she stated.
Addressing the ceremony, Ambassador of France Marc Barety said the Franco-Pakistani cultural, scientific and academic and technical cooperation was long-standing.
