ISLAMABAD, May 8: There are as many as five foreign academic institutions that have been authorized to run various programmes in collaboration with Pakistani institutions.

This was stated by Federal Education Minister Zobaida Jalal in response to a question asked by Dr Mohammad Brohi in the recently concluded session of the Senate.

These institutions are offering degree programmes in information technology and business studies similar to those which are being taught in educational institutions of the country.

Griffith College Dublin, Ireland, has its campus in Karachi and is running national certificate/degree programmes of the National Council for Educational Awards (NCEA), Ireland, under joint collaboration between the Academic Services Pakistan, Karachi and Griffith College, Ireland.

Institute of Business Administration and Technology (Ibadat) Foundation, Islamabad is running undergraduate twinning degree programmes in collaboration with Western Michigan University, USA.

Karachi Institute of Information Technology, Karachi (KIIT) is offering various degree programmes in collaboration with the University of Huddersfield, England.

Asia Pacific Institute of Information Technology, Pakistan, based in Karachi is offering BSc (Hons) in computer sciences with Staffordshire University, UK.

Beaconhouse Informatics (BI), Islamabad is collaborating with Informatic Holdings Singapore and Curtin University of Technology, Australia to run BBIT degree programmes.

It is worth mentioning here that the ever-increasing number of dubious institutions claim their collaboration with known international universities and offer various courses.