SWABI, Dec 28: Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology, Swabi and Northwestern Polytechnic University, China on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding for academic exchange programme.

GIK Institute coordinator Professor Mohammad Abid and director at the international cooperation office of NPU Huaxing Li signed MoU on behalf of their educational institutions.

According to Professor Abid, the two universities will carry out academic exchange programme through their international offices and will have coordinators for the academic exchange programme to liaise between their international offices.

He said applications should be received by international offices of the two universities.

“The academic exchange programme mainly focuses on students and faculties exchange, teaching, and collaborative research,” he said.

Dr Abid, who is also the dean of the mechanical engineering faculty, said student exchange would be supported through China-Pakistan Exchange Scholarship Programme and other relative programmes and the duration of studying at the host university will be for three to 36 months.

He said the faculty exchange and collaborative research would be supported through China-Pakistan Exchange Funding and other relative programmes. He added that the duration of teaching or research at the host university would be no more than 12 months.Dr Abid said in the field of research, the collaborative research would be supported through China-Pakistan research funding and other relative programmes and the research topics should meet the mutual interest and the development of advanced science and technology.

“The duration of the collaborative research will be for one to 36 months. Request for extension requires approval of both the universities,” he said.

Rector at GIK Institute Jehangir Bashar lauded the agreement and said interaction with the Chinese university would be very beneficial for both students and academia of the two educational institutions.

He said NPU was one of the leading universities of China and the GIK Institute looked forward for strengthening its links and interaction with more Chinese universities.