Academic support: Scottish university to train KIU faculty

Agreement between the two universities will help KIU bolster its faculty and academic programmes.

GILGIT: The Karakoram International University (KIU) will collaborate with St Andrews University in Scotland to bolster its faculty and academic programmes.

A KIU spokesperson said on Thursday that the agreement between the two universities included faculty from KIU going to St Andrews for PhD and postdoctoral programmes and collaborating with the Scottish university’s faculty members for joint research.

Vice Chancellor Dr Najma Najam, Dr Jillian Taylor (Deans of Humanities) and Dr Iftkhar Hassan visited St Andrews University and met with the university’s vice chancellor, dean, and senior faculty while discussing the possible collaboration.

St Andrews, the spokesperson added, will also help KIU set up a medical college, drawing on its experience of setting up similar colleges in Malawi and South Africa.

“We hope that KIU will benefit from the expertise of St Andrews, which has extensive international experience in supporting university development,” the spokesperson said.

“The Scottish professors were very keen to contribute to Gilgit-Baltistan,” he said, adding that some of them had travelled to the region earlier and were keen to return.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 5^th, 2011.