KARACHI: The Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI) and Greenwich University signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to cooperate and actively facilitate each other in recognizing the possibilities of growth and realizing the need for strong industry-academia linkage.

The MoU was signed by President KCCI Mohammed Tariq Yousuf and Research Professor Greenwich University Dr A Q Mughal at a simple ceremony held at KCCI which was also attended by Vice President KCCI Mohammad Haris Agar, Chairman of KCCI’s Special Committee for MoUs Implementation Junaid Esmail Makda, Chairman Health & Education Sub-committee Farhan Ashrafi, Assistant Professor Greenwich University Dr Tahira Tahir and KCCI Managing Committee Members.

According to the MoU, the GU will provide KCCI employees and their family members a flat 25 percent scholarship on tuition fees and waiver in admission fees while the GU will also organize soft skills-based training courses for KCCI employees.

The Karachi Chamber and Greenwich University have also agreed to collaboratively organize programmes including public awareness sessions, seminars, conferences, and CSR projects, besides helping each other in research and development (R&D).

Speaking on the occasion, President KCCI Mohammed Tariq Yousuf stressed the need for building strong industry-academia linkage so that youth could be efficiently trained by the universities exactly as per requirements of the industry which would certainly prove favorable for the industry as well as the economy.

Underscoring the need to promote entrepreneurship and produce professionals as per need of corporate sector and industries, he termed the MoU between the two institutions a “very productive move” and said that KCCI was enthusiastic to play a constructive and leading role in bridging the industry with academia.

The meeting participants stressed the need for updating universities’ curriculum according to international standards and as per requirements of the industries whereas it should also be made mandatory for every student to undertake internship for six months during graduation which would prepare the graduates to start delivering immediately after joining any corporate entity.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023