University of Sindh (SU) Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Fateh Muhammad Burfat has devised a strategic plan for the years 2019 to 2021 to meet newly-emerging challenges in the higher education sector, generate additional revenue and strengthen the university-industry linkage. These strategic plans include measures to impart education in engineering and medical spheres; construction of a techno-park and signing of memoranda of understanding with leading industrial outfits in the region. The said vision was made public in a high-profile varsity interface in the presence of SU Registrar Dr Ameer Ali Abro; University of Tartu Estonia Prof Dr Yar Muhammad Mughal; Faculty of Natural Sciences Dean Prof Dr Abdul Rasool Abbasi; Dr Kamran Taj Pathan; Dr Imtiaz Korejo; Dr Shahzad Ahmed Memon; Dr Farhat Noren; Dr Hira Naqvi and Social Scientist Dr Gul Mastoi. Dr Burfat also informed that a Skill and Career Development Centre would also be set up at the varsity soon. He added that the centre would be run in collaboration with the regional and national industries. Estonian Prof encourages students to benefit from techno advancements “The proposed centre will impart youth with technical, social and conceptual wherewithal; enabling them to grab jobs immediately after graduating,” the VC briefed. He said that the SU Alumni Association would also be made more active to facilitate the SU graduate network with SU alumni abroad, and, in turn, obtain scholarships and other academic awards overseas. Dr Burfat argued, “When professional universities in the fields of engineering and medicine offer BS English (Language and Linguistics) programs; why can’t SU offer engineering and medicine streams?” Meanwhile, the vice-chancellor also visited the Faculty of Pharmacy of the varsity along with Estonian professor Dr Yar Muhammad Mughal. During the visit, Dr Mughal informed students that Estonia was a small and burgeoning North European country, which was, at present, a world leader in the information technology development and the digitisation of all spheres of life. Dr Mughal also talked at length about why Pakistanis should prefer to study and work in Estonia and what opportunities could the country offer them. He added that higher education in this small EU state came at relatively low tuition fee and low living costs. Meanwhile, there were various scholarship options available for international students, he noted. He told that Estonia had become the first country in the world to have adopted the concept of e-residency in 2014. It also had a completely computer-based government, the professor asserted. “Before that, in 2005, it was the first nation to hold internet elections,” he maintained. He said that the SU students needed to benefit from the technological advancements of Estonia to serve their province and country, upon their return to Pakistan. Dr Mughal noted, “Home to around 150 Pakistanis, of whom 50 per cent are currently students of PhD, masters or bachelors degrees related to the field of Pharmacy, Estonia has recently signed a vital academic collaboration, approved Erasmus, and established International Credit Mobility Funds between Pakistan and Estonian Universities.” Eulogizing Estonia’s friendly laws regarding immigrant workers and her relatively liberal social trends, he asserted that as an international student in Estonia, a person could dovetail his/her studies with part-time or full-time jobs that were enough to provide stable support to study, work and stay in this dreamland. On the occasion, Faculty of Pharmacy Dean Prof Dr Abdullah Dayo; Dr Muhammad Ali Ghoto; Dr Ali Qureshi and others accompanied Dr Mughal and Prof Dr Burfat.