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Gateway to a better future

Nishat Riaz Saturday, Aug 20, 2022
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A recent study has revealed that University College London (UCL) generated
GBP9.9 billion of economic impact across the UK in 2018/19. This is equal to the
trade boost delivered by the 2012 London Olympics.

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For every GBP1 million publicly invested in research, UCL produced a benefit of
GBP11.5 million. According to the UCL management, this could only be achieved
in collaboration with the varsity’s partners as 77 per cent of UCL’s academic
partners are based outside London.

Nothing exists in a vacuum, and higher education is no exception. This stands

true for the tertiary education sector in Pakistan.

While the sector is growing fast – with more than 230 universities across
Pakistan – the challenges of equitable access, quality and relevance continue to
remind us of the potential this sector could possibly unleash and contribute
back to society and the economy. A well-connected higher education sector is
able to co-create, curate and cross-pollinate ideas, knowledge, experience, skills
and learning across multiple platforms, and hence it is breathing, alive and
always open for new interventions.

The Pakistan-UK Education Gateway is one example of such a comprehensive

and dynamic strategic partnership between Pakistan’s and the UK’s higher
education sectors. This partnership involves connections and collaborations in
research, teaching and capacity building at the system-to-system and
institution-to-institution levels, facilitated by a sector-to-sector agreement. The
Gateway is meant to be an effective vehicle for developing human resource,
knowledge and skills capital in Pakistan through mutual learning.

The key areas of collaboration under the Gateway’s umbrella framework are:
research, faculty development, higher education leadership, quality assurance
and standard setting, international mobility, distance learning, STEM, and
transnational education.

Through collaborative programmes in the last 15 years, over 165 institutional

links around teaching, research, mentoring and science have been developed,
involving over 1,500 senior researchers and 1,000 academics from both
countries contributing to sustainable development goals and institutional
capacity building. As part of the mentoring, leadership and governance
programmes, over 99 per cent of all VCs, rectors and senior higher education
leaders have received training in the UK since 2010.

At the moment, eight large-scale research projects between the UK and

Pakistan, worth around GBP3 million are active in contributing to local
challenges in the areas of climate change, robotics, artificial intelligence,
history and archaeology, medical and health sciences, food security and
agriculture.

In July 2020, a new and practical policy around open and distance learning
was developed in response to Covid-19. The policy is being implemented across
Pakistan, reaching out to a minimum of two million students. The blended
learning models and criteria developed through the Pakistan-UK Education
Gateway is helping higher education institutions in Pakistan to tailor their
offers meeting the needs of learners and students. The programme has also
helped develop a new guide on transnational education (TNE), which will
enable international education providers to offer programmes of international
quality in Pakistani universities.

During the past two years of the Gateway, 21 travel and exploratory grants have
enabled over 50 faculty members to explore further partnerships. More than 60
researchers have won travel grants from Pakistan to develop their research
linkages under different travel grants programmes while over 1,500
researchers have been trained in developing sustainable research networks.

Mumraiz Khan Kasi, for instance, from the Balochistan University of

Information Technology and Management Sciences is all set to collaborate with
researchers in the University of Glasgow to design a wireless sensor network
(WSN) based solution to combat deforestation in Pakistan. Similarly,
Muhammad Mubasher Saleem from NUST will be furthering the development
of nanomaterials based tactile sensors for tele-manipulation in robotic surgery
in collaboration with a researcher in the University of Edinburgh. These are
just some of the numerous exciting examples of the ongoing work under the
Gateway.

Addressing long-debated issues around quality, the Quality Assurance Agency

of the UK is closely working with the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to
help establish quality mechanisms, benefitting around 50,000 faculty members
for the higher education sector of Pakistan.

To ensure opportunities for women to continue with their studies, the Scottish
Scholarship scheme has facilitated over 400 women, in their masters’ study, all
across Pakistan, in priority fields such as education, sustainable energy, food
security and agriculture, health sciences and STEM education.

Despite all this, the aspirations of the Gateway are higher and bigger as it aims
to contribute to a better learning landscape and ecosystem for young people
who aspire and deserve to learn and contribute for a safe and brighter world for
everyone.

While these numbers reflect huge efforts of the partners, these also remind us
of the overwhelming scale that requires collective and consistent efforts at
many levels.

I recall Sir Chris Husbands, the former vice chancellor of Sheffield Hallam
University demanding “uniformity of outcomes” to cope with complex
challenges. Perhaps, the Pakistan-UK Education Gateway using the best of the
Higher Education Commission and the British Council is a starting point to seek
collective power in helping the university sector to nurture and grow and
realise its true potential.

The writer is director education at the British Council, Pakistan.

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