GILGIT:The University of Northampton (UoN) has granted institutional approval (IA) to the Collaboration for Promotion of Law, Social, Engineering and Medical Sciences in Sindh.
The UoN will sign agreements with the SIUC, its individual partner institutions and the UK agent of the SIUC separately, in addition to the original Collaboration Agreement signed earlier.
The Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto University of Law (SZABUL) a member of the SIUC plans to start its next academic session under the Collaboration schema and is awaiting final approval of the same from the Federal Cabinet.
The collaboration programme will translate the dreams of hardworking and intelligent students of the province into a reality and they will be offered scholarships for final year study in UK and awarded degrees by the UK universities. Usually the minimum annual fee in a UK university is 14 thousand pound, but with the collaboration scholarship scheme, the undergraduate Pakistani students will pay 2000 pound and the postgraduate students’ mere 1300 pound annual fee.
Besides founder Chairman SIUC and VC SZABUL Justice Rtd Qazi Khalid Ali, Pro-Chancellor Ziauddin University Dr Nida Hussain, Chancellor Jinnah University for Women Wajihuddin Ahmed, Dean Partnerships UoN Hastings Mackenzie and Mushahid Hussain Zuberi also attended the meeting.
During the consideration of IA, the UoN panel examined the evidence of good standing, academic and financial stability of the institution and the compatibility of the institutional missions and objectives. The SIUC demonstrated its ability to provide the infrastructure and resources necessary to ensure the required quality and standard.
Before the IA, the proposed collaboration was given development approval by the Management Team of the UoN. It was subsequently considered by the Risk Assessment and Approval Panel of UoN. In furtherance of these agreements, a programme-level collaboration approval event will be held in the UK for autumn 2018. The event will consider collaborative arrangements whereby the SIUC members will be enabled to deliver the programmes.
The Collaboration programme of SIUC, a brainchild of its founder Chairman and former provincial Education Minister Justice rtd Qazi Khalid Ali, led to signing of an agreement to develop mutually acceptable programme delivery model by the Secretary of Sindh HEC which suggested commitment to the project by the government. It is the first ever collaboration arrangement between Pakistani and foreign universities which has duly been considered and approved by the Government of Pakistan. Some educational agreements between private Pakistani and foreign institutions do not have sovereign approval by the government of Pakistan hence are not in line with the provisions of the 1973 constitution dealing with foreign agreements. The Senate penal for IA noted that the Collaboration Agreements suggest a centralised role for the SIUC in recruitment, finance and in-country approvals etc.
The SIUC management and committee structure and its Constitution provide evidence that the Sindh Higher Education Commission had properly constituted the SIUC and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan provided assurance in understanding the regulatory framework in Pakistan, the role of HEC and its quality assurance arm–the Quality Assurance Agency.
The IA of the collaboration agreements having been accorded; now both the UoN and SIUC will establish Partner Resource Centres (PRCs). The Academic Partnerships Office of UoN will liaise with the academic staff and external colleagues in order to develop a PRC for each new development.
The PRC will ensure that each partnership has access to a consistent set of information and guidance at University and subject level. It will provide much of the information underpinning the expectations.