August 07, 2008	Thursday	Sha’aban 4, 1429

HYDERABAD, Aug 6: A delegation of University of Southampton, UK, including Pro-Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Alistair Fitt and Madam Jo Nesbitt, deputy head of the international office and regional director, visited the Mehran University of Engineering and Technology on Wednesday and signed an MoU for exchange of scientific, academic and technical information between the two universities.

It also includes academic exchanges, mutual visits of faculty and school members to pursue research and to deliver lecture, and student exchanges on a reciprocal basis.

In his presentation MUET Vice-Chancellor Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan Rajput highlighted the achievements of MUET and said that the University of Southampton is one of the top 10 research universities in UK and has achieved high scores consistently for its teaching and learning activities.

The University of Southampton, he said, is a truly international institution with a global reputation for excellence in leading-edge research and it is an honour for MUET to work with one of the UK’s leading universities.

Professor Fitt appreciated efforts of MUET for signing MOU and said that many goals and objectives, including identifying opportunities for exchanges, cooperation, joint research and development in disciplines of mutual interest can be achieved under this international partnership programme.

The university has more than 20 academic schools which are organised into three faculties he said and added that it offers more than 300 courses at under-graduate and post-graduate levels. To implement the collaborative activities envisaged under the MoU, he said, representatives of the University of Southampton and MUET will meet periodically to negotiate and conclude project agreements and programmes of cooperation.

PHD: University of Sindh Vice-Chancellor Mazharul Haq Siddiqui has called upon scholars of biotechnology and genetic engineering to focus their research on resolving the problems of agriculture, industry and health sectors so that society can benefit from the emerging discipline.

He was speaking at the final PhD seminar of research scholar Asghar Ali on “isolation, purification and characterisation of proteases from cotton seeds on Wednesday. The seminar was attended by a large number of scientists from departments of faculty of natural sciences and research scholars engaged in research on various science disciplines in the university.