An agreement was concluded between the University of Bedfordshire, UK (UoB) and the Comsats Institute of Information Technology, Pakistan (CIIT). The two institutions agreed to offer collaborative dual degree programmes in the disciplines of Business Administration, Computer Science and Telecommunications and Networking at CIIT, Wah. Under the agreed arrangement, 4-year undergraduate degree programmes will be offered at CIIT, Wah.
Upon successful completion, the graduates would receive two degree awards, one each by the UoB and the CIIT. A six member accreditation mission led by Professor Ashraf Jawaid, Deputy Vice Chancellor, UoB visited the CIIT, Wah on 23rd August and 24th August'2011.
Other members of the mission included Dr Paul Davies, Associate Dean, Faculty of Education, Sports and Tourism, UoB, Timothy Gregory, Head of Quality Directorate, UoB; Jeremy White, Deputy Director, Transnational Education, UoB; Dr Anthony Atkins, Reader Applied Computing, Staffordshire University and Dr Abdullah Z Sheikh, lecturer, International HRM, University of East London.
The visiting team carried out detailed review of the academic standards observed at CIIT, Wah which culminated into an agreement on both sides for the award of collaborative dual degrees by UoB at CIIT, Wah. Professor Dr Tayyeb Akram, Director, CIIT, Wah while speaking on the occasion appreciated the confidence reposed by the UoB authorities on CIIT, Wah. He informed the gathering that this collaboration would help CIIT, Wah to further improve the quality of academic and research including the academic management functions.
The Deputy VC, UoB expressed his satisfaction on the level of preparedness of CIIT, Wah in offering the degree programmes of UoB in Pakistan. He expressed the resolve of UoB in promoting the outreach of quality programmes offered at UoB to a developing country like Pakistan at a fraction of price in comparison to what it would cost in UK. He further opined that with the visa regimes getting stringent, availability of such programmes in Pakistan would provide a firm access to quality education to the students in Pakistan.
The accreditation mission called on Professor Dr Sohail Naqvi, Executive Director, Higher Education Commission (HEC) earlier in the day and apprised him about the programme details. Professor Sohail Naqvi appreciated the initiative and assured full support of the Higher Education Commission in this respect.-PR