More than 100 Pakistani alumni of German universities and 10 German distinguished scientists are gathering at a three-day alumni seminar, hosted by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) in the premises of the Islamabad Club from October 29 to October 31, 2010.
In several workshops and plenary discussions focusing on various disciplines like biosciences, water resources, anthropology or conflict studies, the participants are discussing their latest research findings and explore possibilities of future co-operation and networking.
The programme includes - amongst many other topics - a multi-perspective view on the management of Pakistan's water resources, new solutions for the improvement of crop production, reports on co-operative projects in archaeology and anthropology and a plenary discussion on the topic "Universities in transition - the German Humboldt system as a model for Pakistani higher education?"
Dr Sayyar Khan, assistant professor at Agricultural University Peshawar, returned only last year from University of Heidelberg, where he had gained his HEC funded PhD in the field of biotechnology. This year, DAAD funded a revisit to his German host university. Dr Sayyar says, "I am very much looking forward now to meet my Heidelberg PhD supervisor, Professor Dr Ruediger Hell, here in Islamabad. We will continue to research on sulfur enhanced defence mechanisms in oilseed crops, and we hope the findings will be beneficial for Pakistani agriculture."
This example is typical for the research relations that have been building up between Pakistani and German institutes during the last years. Germany has always been one of the favourite destinations of young Pakistani scholars and scientists. The most famous of them was the great poet-philosopher Muhammad Iqbal, who obtained his PhD from the University of Munich in 1907.
Generations of Pakistani students and PhD candidates since then have obtained a degree from a German university or joined German research teams for a certain period of time. Some 900 of them were funded by the DAAD, HEC or the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (AvH).
At present, a total of around 1,400 Pakistani graduates pursue graduate studies and research projects at German universities, many of them on their own expenses. By the same token, Pakistan has been the destination for many German scientists and scholars, particularly in the fields of Anthropology, Geography and Oriental Studies.
Professor Dr Georg Pfeffer (then professor at Heidelberg University) in 1974 assisted Professor Dr Ahmad Hassan Dani in establishing the department of Anthropology at Quaid-e-Azam University. In exchange, the Government of Pakistan is funding a professorship named 'Iqbal Chair' at the South Asian Institute of Heidelberg University. At present, Professor Dr Sayed Wiqar Ali Shah, a historian from Quaid-e-Azam University, is holding this position.
The academic exchange gained momentum when the HEC launched its overseas scholarship schemes in 2004. So far, more than 300 of their scholars have been sent to Germany. More than 60 of these HEC scholars have already returned to Pakistan after their PhD graduation, and most of them maintain the strong linkages to their host institutes in Germany.
DAAD as well as AvH offer special funding programmes for this purpose. Dr Helmut Blumbach, member of the top management of DAAD, said that these bilateral linkages play an important role in the Pakistani-German university co-operation: "We have to support Pakistani alumni and German professors keeping in touch." Since March 2010, DAAD is running an office in Islamabad, which - among others - offers information and guidance to graduates and scientists with the purpose to study or do research in Germany.