Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) launched a co-operative partnership on Monday with the US San Jose State University (SJSU). This three-year agreement will increase access to online learning for students throughout Pakistan. "Online learning will open the university doors to thousands of Pakistanis," said US Embassy Public Affairs Officer Kathryn Schalow, who joined AIOU Vice Chancellor Dr Nazir Ahmed Sangi and representatives from SJSU in an official launching ceremony.
In her remarks, Schalow also emphasised the importance university partnerships play in the US-Pakistan relationship, "People-to-people relationships, like those forged here today, are crucial to broaden and deepen the bonds between the people of our two nations."
The partnership between AIOU and SJSU will improve distance education and computer science for students at both universities by improving teaching methods, updating curriculum, conducting joint research, and providing faculty exchanges.
This is the sixth of eight planned university partnerships between US and Pakistani universities. Five other university partnerships were established in 2012 between US and Pakistani universities: Fatima Jinnah Women's University and the University of Texas at Austin; National University of Modern Languages (NUML) and the University of North Texas; Quaid-e-Azam University and Ball State University; Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Women's University and Southern Methodist University; Isra University and Ball State University.
The United States is investing $8.6 million over the next three years on these partnerships that focus on a range of liberal arts subjects including American Studies, Business Administration and Management Sciences, Mass Communications and Media Studies, Psychology, Social Anthropology, and Women's and Gender Studies. These partnerships are part of a broad US effort to connect Pakistani and American universities, which includes the Centres for Advanced Studies planned at leading universities in Pakistan on the critical areas of energy, water, and agriculture.
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