Daily Times

Institute of Administrative Sciences (IAS) – University of the Punjab inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with The University of Massachusetts, Civic Initiative USA in April 2019. Earlier this year in January, Mr. Micheal Hannahan, Director of the UMass Civic Initiative accompanied by Aamir Habib Khattak -SUSI Alumni & Jahangir Khan Bazai – President of PUAN Quetta visited IAS. The delegation was welcomed by Prof. Dr. Nasira Jabeen, Dean Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences (FEMS) & Director IAS and senior faculty members including Mr. Muhammad Zahid, Dr. Nighat Ansari, Dr. Sidra Irfan, Dr. Sobia Khurram, and other exchange program students of PU.

The basic agenda for that academic interaction was to promote the notion of acceptance, inclusiveness and diversity. It is an hour to adopt a dialogic perspective to understand the discourse of “public policy” both at individual and state level. Mr. Michael expressed his views about the semester exchange students from Pakistan and appreciated the set of values and sense of acceptance they bring from their country. He shared a number of other programs under USEFP that students can opt for. IAS is proud of its alumni, Mr. Tahir Khattak and Ms. Amna Siddique for making the efforts to bring forward this initiative for the agreement among both universities. A significant number of students from Institute of Administrative Sciences (IAS) Punjab University have availed the opportunity of exchange program under UGRAD and SUSI program in past few years including; Sara Abid, Momina Khalid, Zuofyshan Ahmer. Naqsh Nasyr, Namra Nasyr, Ayesha Sarwar, Irtiza Haider, Najaf Imtiaz, Sadia Imran and Hussain Ali.

The MOU will be mutually beneficial in terms of brining cross cultural awareness and understanding, improving quality of education, opportunities of interaction and dialogue at students, teachers and management level between the two institutions- Institute of Administrative Sciences (IAS), University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan and The University of Massachusetts – Civic and Public Policy Initiative, USA. The general purpose of this agreement is exchange and the specific purpose is developing and cooperating on programs broadly defined as Civic Education & Economic Planning, Public Policy & Public Management. This would entail Faculty Exchanges, Development of Joint Master’s Degree programs, joint research projects and opportunities, online learning talks and classes and cooperation for PhD dissertations. The beneficiaries of this program will be faculty members, undergraduate and graduate students, departments, institutes and academic planning staff.

Many students of IAS have been exchange program students in the recent past years. IAS encourages students to explore international opportunities for mutual learning and enhancing the inclusivity. Recently, IAS students participated in Harvard National Model United Nations 2019. The team members included; Syed Raghib Rasool, Sheraz Ahmed, Muhammad Ali Butt, Samra Hassan Khan and Sana Ali Abid.