Higher Education Commission (HEC) Chairman Prof. Dr Niaz Ahmad Akhtar held a courtesy meeting with Dr Syed Ali Asad Gilani, Pakistan’s newly appointed Ambassador to China, to discuss existing collaboration between HEC Pakistan and Chinese universities. Gilani took over as Pakistan’s ambassador to Beijing earlier this year, replacing outgoing ambassador Khalil Hashmi after a three year tenure, and this meeting gives the incoming envoy an early briefing on one of the more active strands of Pakistan-China bilateral cooperation. The Chairman apprised the Ambassador of key initiatives currently underway, including the training of agriculture graduates and the placement of Pakistani graduates in China for six month study programmes in their respective fields.
Both sides discussed expanding capacity building for Pakistani faculty and researchers in emerging fields, including artificial intelligence and its applications in agriculture, smart manufacturing, and transportation, as well as cybersecurity, quantum computing, robotics, and machine learning. This emphasis on AI and emerging technology fields reflects a broader shift in how HEC has been framing its China partnerships in recent months, following comments from Akhtar during an earlier visit to Beijing where he pushed for a Pak-China “knowledge corridor” and noted that Chinese has become the most widely studied foreign language in Pakistani universities. The specific mention of AI applications across agriculture, manufacturing, and transportation suggests HEC is positioning these emerging technology partnerships around practical, sector specific applications rather than purely theoretical research collaboration.
The meeting also focused on building out the CPEC Consortium of Universities through university to university linkages between Pakistan and China, a platform that has grown considerably since its 2017 establishment. The consortium has expanded from an initial handful of member institutions to include 93 Pakistani and 40 Chinese universities as of a July 2026 review meeting, with achievements including six China Study Centres, collaborative research grants, faculty and student exchanges, and training and talent development programmes. At that same July meeting, Akhtar had urged Pakistani universities to move beyond simply signing MoUs and instead focus on measurable deliverables such as joint and dual degree programmes, collaborative research projects, co-publications, and Transnational Education initiatives, a push that appears to have continued into this latest engagement with the new ambassador.
Both sides reaffirmed their commitment to expanding bilateral cooperation in higher education and exploring new initiatives in line with the Government of Pakistan’s broader vision for the sector. The meeting adds to a steady cadence of high level engagements between HEC leadership and Chinese counterparts over the past year, spanning ministerial visits, university consortium reviews, and training programmes for Pakistani academics hosted at institutions like Tianjin Foreign Studies University. With Gilani now settling into his role as ambassador, this early courtesy meeting on higher education ties suggests the diplomatic relationship will continue placing significant weight on academic and research collaboration alongside the more commonly discussed CPEC infrastructure and trade dimensions of the broader Pakistan-China partnership.
Follow the SPIN IDG WhatsApp Channel for updates across the Smart Pakistan Insights Network covering all of Pakistan’s technology ecosystem.
