With an increased need to establish international standard doctoral programmes in public sector universities in Pakistan, the Research and Development Division of Higher Education Commission (HEC) and the British Council collaborated to successfully launch a three-day programme on ‘Capacity Building for Doctoral Provision in Pakistan’ at HEC.

HEC is an independent, autonomous, and constitutionally established institution of primary funding, overseeing, regulating, and accrediting the higher education efforts in Pakistan. The HEC also facilitates the development of higher educational system in the country with the main purpose of upgrading the universities and colleges in the country to be the focal point of education, research, and development.

The programme was launched in partnership with University College London Institute of Education, UK and the Association of Commonwealth Universities. Contributions from the local universities on the doctoral provision included presentations from Quaid-i-Azam University and University of Karachi. The programme will be a gateway to introduce several new doctoral programmes in upcoming public sector universities in Pakistan. The focal persons for the 3 day workshop were Dr. Anne Gold and Dr Denise Hawkes from University College London Institute of Education, UK.

The unique element of this programme will be to offer ‘cross-fertilisation’ of ideas, knowledge and experience enabling each government university to disseminate the project into their own regions leading to greater reach.

The impact of the project will bring high quality doctoral programmes with access to a larger student audience. This in return will further strengthen collaboration within universities; develop in country research centres, ensuring a larger group of home-based researchers and academics. The future sees a longer-term expansion of the programme to other universities in Pakistan and other countries with support to develop a partnership model in the South Asia region.

British Council Pakistan strives to support universities, institutions and other education decision makers in their advancement and partnership development strategies.

Trans-national education (TNE) is a growing market in Pakistan and recent data shows evidence of over 40 such programs running successfully in affiliation with British universities at undergraduate and graduate level, according to The British Council. Overall, the UK takes about 65 per cent of the TNE market in Pakistan.

 For details on partnership development, contact the SIEM Pakistan team for customised consultancy offers.