A delegation from the University
of Bradford will visit Pakistan later this month to create new partnerships
between the country and the Bradford region.
The trip will look to engage with
alumni and key stakeholders and create new opportunities for the two areas to
collaborate.
The delegation, which includes
Vice-Chancellor Brian Cantor and senior academics along with the Director of
External Affairs, Mark Garratt, will visit Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi from
22-28 February. The team will host a series of dinners titled 'Destination
Bradford: Education & Culture from the heart of the UK'. This will
be in addition to holding discussions and meetings with institutions and senior
government officials.
In Lahore, the University of
Bradford will be a key partner of the Lahore Literature Festival which takes
place Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 February. The festival is the city’s premier
free-to-public cultural event. It explores the dialogue and interface between
literature and the arts that shape our cultural, social, economic, and
political frameworks.
Vice-Chancellor of the University
of Bradford, Professor Brian Cantor, said “Pakistan
is a key area for us in terms of recruitment, alumni, and partnership
collaborations, both academic and industrial. It’s our ambition that this visit
will create new opportunities, not only for the University but for the Bradford
region as a whole.”
We already have a close relationship with Pakistan and I look
forward to building on these existing partnerships as well as creating new
ones.”
Fahd Asif, Regional Manager, said:
“Pakistan features as a core market
within the University's new internationalisation agenda. This high-profile
delegation visit aims to celebrate our long-standing links to Pakistan and will
open new avenues of collaboration and partnership with stakeholders here.”
In preparation for the visit, a
team from the University visited Pakistan in November 2018. During this
visit they met with several senior figures including the Federal Minister of
Education H.E. Shafqat Mahmood and the Special Assistant to the Prime
Minister on Overseas Pakistanis & Human Resource Development H.E. Zulfi
Bukhari to discuss the University's work within the Pakistani Higher
Education Sector.
There are long standing links
between Bradford and Pakistan, including the current Prime Minister of
Pakistan, Imran Khan, being a former Chancellor at the University.