Chairman of Pakistan’s Higher Education Commission, Professor Doctor Niaz Ahmad Akhtar, visited Huawei’s research and development campus in Shanghai alongside the company’s chief executive, holding discussions on innovation, emerging technologies, and future opportunities for collaboration between Huawei and Pakistan’s higher education sector. The visit formed part of a week-long trip to China during which the HEC chairman has held a series of meetings with academic and technology institutions.
During the visit, discussions focused on artificial intelligence, digital transformation, advanced information and communication technologies, academia-industry collaboration, research partnerships, and talent development. The engagement gave the HEC delegation direct insight into Huawei’s research and development ecosystem, one of the company’s largest global hubs for work spanning semiconductors, wireless technology, digital energy, and intelligent systems.
Akhtar reaffirmed the Higher Education Commission’s commitment to fostering strategic partnerships that strengthen innovation and create greater opportunities for Pakistani universities, researchers, and students. The Huawei visit adds to a series of engagements the HEC chairman has held in China this week, including meetings with Fudan University’s leadership on faculty and student mobility, joint degree programmes, and collaborative research in artificial intelligence, semiconductors, and future oriented education.
Earlier in the trip, Akhtar led a delegation of vice chancellors from leading Pakistani universities, including NUST, COMSATS, Bahria University, the University of Sindh, and BUITEMS, in talks with the China Association of Higher Education, where he proposed a long term Pak-China Higher Education Framework 2035 built around language exchange, talent development, research cooperation, digital transformation of universities, and a proposed Pak-China Knowledge Corridor. The same delegation also signed two cooperation agreements in Beijing, one establishing a teacher and student exchange programme with Qingdao Hengxing University of Science and Technology, and another with Chinese education technology firm Jiuxuewang Group focused on introducing AI powered classrooms and a national smart education platform across Pakistani universities.
The visit to Huawei’s Shanghai campus is expected to pave the way for broader collaboration between the company and Pakistani universities in advanced technologies, reinforcing HEC’s ongoing effort to internationalise the country’s higher education sector and expose students and researchers to frontier research environments abroad. With Pakistan and China marking 75 years of diplomatic relations this year, the series of engagements during Akhtar’s visit reflects a broader push to deepen education and technology cooperation between the two countries as part of the next phase of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
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