UHS Vice-Chancellor, Professor Malik Mubbashar (centre), with, from left, Dr Ian Willis, Paul Duvall, Dr Janet Strivens and Professor Atif Rahman
Ten PhD students will study at University of Liverpool as part of a unique collaboration with the University of Health Sciences (UHS) in Lahore, Pakistan.
The agreement was formally ratified during a visit to Liverpool by UHS Vice-Chancellor, Professor Malik Mubbashar.
Professor Mubbashar said: “I came here two years ago where we signed a memorandum of understanding and that has now been translated into action. There has been lots of activity in medical education. The problem based learning here is something we haven’t started yet but I think will be very useful. We’ll be sending ten medical graduates, doing PhD’s in different areas, per annum and, similarly, students from Liverpool will come out to Pakistan.”
The biggest medical university in Pakistan, UHS currently has 35,000 undergraduate and 4,000 postgraduate students registered.
University of Liverpool Professor of Child Psychiatry, Atif Rahman helped bring the partnership to fruition.
Professor Rahman said: “It’s building on our vision of positioning ourselves as a global university where we are reaching out to institutions all over the world that can benefit from the high quality education we have to offer. It takes advantage of the networks Liverpool academics like myself maintain all over the world.”
The collaboration is being led by Dr Ian Willis from the Educational Development Division in the Centre for Lifelong Learning.
Dr Willis said: “I think there’s absolutely no question that the international reputation of Liverpool is very attractive, as well as the significant skills and expertise of staff here. It’s a showcase for the certain kind of expertise that Liverpool has to offer in an international setting and as a result of this we are starting to get enquiries from other universities for similar projects. This is an example of how a learning and teaching project can create connections that may lead to research outcomes.”
And for Malik Mubbashar this is just the beginning of what he hopes will be a long association.
Professor Mubbashar added: “I’m very excited about this, it will be a great success and benefit both universities.”
Applications are now being invited in Pakistan and the project has the backing of the British Council.
Good news! The university needs to form more international partnerships of this kind, involving exchanges PhD students and collaboration between academic staff.