Turkey will provide technical expertise for establishment of a Technology Park in Pakistan, while it sought help for strengthening of Urdu departments in Turkish universities.

It was decided in a meeting of Turkish delegation led by Professor Dr. M A Yekta Sarac, President, Council of Higher Education (CoHE) Turkey with Chairman Higher Education Commission (HEC) Professor Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed. The Turkish delegation visited the HEC Secretariat here on Thursday.

On the occasion, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by both countries to enable collaboration in different fields.

The two sides agreed that Pakistan and Turkey have a number of similar priorities for higher education and both the countries need to synergize their potential in addressing future educational, scientific and technological challenges.

It was agreed to initiate joint research, faculty and student exchange programs, and setting up centers of excellence in fields of respective expertise.

Turkish universities will initiate signature projects in Pakistan

It was also decided that Turkey will provide technical expertise for establishment of a Technology Park in Pakistan, while Turkey sought help for strengthening of Urdu departments in Turkish universities. It was also discussed that Turkish universities will initiate signature projects in Pakistan.

Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed briefed the visitors about development of Pakistan’s higher education sector since HEC’s inception in 2002 and how different initiatives taken by Commission to improve equitable access, ensure quality, develop human resource and promote relevant research have borne fruit.

Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed also elaborated HEC’s effort to establish Office of Research, Innovation and Commercialization (ORIC) at universities, Business incubation Centres (BICs), Technology Fund, National Skills University, Prime Minister’s Laptop and Fee-Reimbursement Schemes, different local and foreign scholarship schemes, research grants, Pakistan Education and Research Network, Digital Library and a few other programmes.

He said Pakistan has 178 public and private sector universities, though access has increased but a lot needs to be done to further improve quality of education for country’s youth.

The Chairman said that Pakistan and Turkey have agreements for collaboration in higher education sector, adding that this partnership needs to be strengthened further.

The President CoHE gave an overview of Turkey’s higher education sector. He appreciated the reforms brought about by HEC during the last decade and hoped that their visit would strengthen bilateral cooperation in higher education.

He said it is a good sign that Pakistan and Turkey have a strong basis of collaboration which can be further expanded. He shared the Turkish experience and said that access to education was increasing but they were well aware of the quality challenge that confronted them. He said that at present there are 185 universities in Turkey and over 150,000 faculty members and around 6.8 Million students.