Pakistan and Asia-Pacific: Call for standardising engineering education

Two-day int’l meeting concludes in capital.

A two-day international meeting of experts that concluded here on Saturday underlined the importance of harmonising engineering education in Pakistan and the Asia-Pacific region to international standards, said a press release.

A national dialogue and international meeting was organised by The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco)’s Islamabad and Jakarta (Indonesia) offices keeping in view the role of engineers in planning, infrastructure, and sustainable development through improved energy and transportation systems.

The two-day event was attended by officials and representatives of the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC), Higher Education Commission (HEC), Economic Cooperation Organisation Science Foundation (ECOSF), Unesco-ISTIC, the Federation of Engineering Institutions of Asia and the Pacific (FEIAP) and representatives from Pakistani engineering institutions and industry.

The High Commissioner of Malaysia to Pakistan, Hasrul Sani bin Mujtabar, who was the chief guest on the occasion, reaffirmed his country’s strong support for Unesco in enhancing capacity building in education, science and culture under the Malaysian Funds in Trust Agreement.



He said the meeting was part of the South-South cooperation which would further strengthen through Pakistan and Malaysia’s bilateral relations. “Besides rice and palm oil trade between Pakistan and Malaysia, I am pleased to see this initiative where engineers of the two countries will work closely with each other,” said Mujtabar.

PEC Chairman Abdul Qadir Shah highlighted the need of standardisation of engineering qualification for addressing profession-related problems.

Unesco Islamabad Representative Vibeke Jensen emphasised that the initiative meant to encourage and inspire academics, particularly in Pakistan and other countries of the Asia-Pacific region, towards harmonising the engineering qualification standards to international standards.

ECOSF President Manzoor Soomro shared plans and programmes of the foundation.

Participants discussed development of a road map for engineering qualifications’ standardisations.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 11^th, 2015.