Pakistan announces scholarships for Bangladeshi students

ISLAMABAD: In a significant move to enhance academic cooperation, Pakistan has announced 100 scholarship opportunities for Bangladeshi students to pursue studies at top Pakistani universities.

This was reaffirmed at the Special Vice Chancellors‘ Forum for Bangladesh, organized by OIC-COMSTECH at its Secretariat.

The forum united a seven-member Bangladesh delegation comprising Vice Chancellors and top representatives of leading universities, as well as Vice Chancellors of 15 leading Pakistani universities that are members of the COMSTECH Consortium of Excellence (CCoE).

Coordinator General of OIC-COMSTECH, Prof. Dr. M. Iqbal Choudhary, received the visiting delegates and emphasized the visit as a positive step towards strengthening academic and scientific collaboration between the two founding member states of COMSTECH. He announced granting 100 scholarships to Bangladeshi students as a token of academic solidarity.

Addressing the occasion, Bangladesh High Commissioner to Pakistan, Md. Iqbal Hussain Khan praised COMSTECH’s effort for creating an effective academic interaction among higher learning institutions of the two nations.

He stressed that joint partnerships in the fields of science, technology, and education were vital for collective progress.

Interactive sessions saw Vice Chancellors from both institutions discuss opportunities for collaboration, such as student and staff exchange programs, collaborative research projects, scholarship programs, and shared access to academic facilities.

 There was an understanding that every university would identify a focal person to ensure sustained communication and follow-through on initiatives that had been agreed upon.

The forum included keynote talks, such as one by Sir Syed CASE Institute of Technology Chancellor Prof. Dr. Shoab A. Khan on the development of Artificial Intelligence in Pakistan, and presentations by Private Education Institutions Regulatory Authority Chairperson Prof. Dr. Shoab A. Khan on how to increase university rankings.

Bangladesh delegation, which was present from June 16 to June 21, also met with prominent universities in Islamabad, Lahore, and Murree.

The delegates were pleased with the cordial hospitality and described their visit as historic, fruitful, and a promising start for long-term academic cooperation between Pakistan and Bangladesh.