Strengthening Academic Collaboration between Pakistan and Azerbaijan   

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Pakistan-Azerbaijan
Dr Attiq-ur-Rehman

Interstate academic collaborations between nations generally create substantial potential for improving their diplomatic ties and fostering governmental-level political communications between leaders. It further enables the cooperating governments to secure high lengths of societal and economic relations parallel to exploring diverse collaborative avenues for multidimensional bilateral progress in the world.

The Azerbaijan Language and Culture Center at NUML fosters intellectual ties and cultural understanding between Pakistan and Azerbaijan.

The notion of academic collaboration finds profound application in the emerging bilateral relations between Islamabad and Baku. The leading state authorities of both states are convinced of the significance of productive academic interaction, which could serve their shared goals in the diplomatic, political, economic, and social domains.

Tied by several common factors consisting of shared history and common ideology, the leaders of both nations are aspirants of enhancing their people-to-people contacts with the belief that the increasing societal connections will let them concentrate on several unexplored dimensions of their bilateral collaboration.

Unprecedented progress in the Pakistan-Azerbaijan bilateral relations originates from the history of reciprocal support of both nations to the former Karabakh and ongoing Kashmir issues. The joint efforts of two-sided leaders to support each other in their respective regional issues were the foundational stones of their initial cooperative bonds.  

The genesis of education collaboration between two states can be traced back to the last decade of the twentieth century when the governments of both states identified cultural diplomacy as an essential tool for promoting bilateral cooperation through initiating an informal phase of student exchange programs. The two-sided academic connections later formalized when the Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan and Azerbaijani key higher studies institutions developed collaborative interactions with each other and launched various student exchange programs.

The multifaceted institutional partnerships gained momentum when the HEC of Pakistan and the Azerbaijan Ministry of Education encouraged the two-sided students to pursue higher education in diverse areas. In this regard, the Azerbaijan International Development Agency (AIDA) under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs proved instrumental in sponsoring research projects for Pakistani students in varied directions.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy (ADA University) has a brief history of sponsoring and supporting Pakistani students in Baku. By nurturing higher education partnerships, the leading state officials from both sides showed their strengths in bridging knowledge gaps and discovering innovative solutions to their common problems based on a shared academic vision.

The bilateral cooperation in the form of institutional collaboration witnessed a brief layer of academic collaboration in higher studies. Thus, the formal agreements between the two-sided higher studies institutions resulted in the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Quaid-i-Azam University and Azerbaijan Technical University, which was after the landmark association of Azerbaijan University of Languages with the National University of Modern Languages (NUML) of Pakistan.

Joint research funds and digital education connections can revolutionize bilateral academic collaborations, bridging gaps and expanding opportunities.

The establishment of the Azerbaijan Language and Culture Center at NUML explicitly symbolizes the emerging academic cooperation between the two nations to foster intellectual ties between Islamabad and Baku. The established center in NUML is envisioned to serve as a platform for advancing cultural contacts between the two nations through promoting Azerbaijani culture and language in Pakistan which could facilitate the people of both nations to understand the societal contexts of each other.  

In this way, the deepening academic ties between the two states will enable their respective governments to expand the existing framework of their people-to-people contacts where the language barrier is a potential challenge. To overcome language-based communication disconnects, the student exchange programs are required to emphasize the advancement of Azerbaijani and Urdu languages in their growing education partnerships.

Moreover, the absence of concentration on diverse education fields limits the scope of a broader Pakistan-Azerbaijan academic collaboration where the lack of adequate awareness of two-sided higher studies institutions is a serious problem seeking appropriate responses from the government authorities.

The dearth of a centralized mechanism for providing appropriate information on various scholarships and financial assistance programs is the responsible factor restricting the scope of multidimensional intellectual cooperation between two states. This scenario further hampers the role of collaborative efforts between two-sided intellectual communities in strengthening their interaction through actively participating in combined scholarly debates.     

Therefore, the leaders of both states are required to diversify their existing academic partnerships by signing more MoUs with key higher studies institutions parallel to bridging language gaps. The integration of modern technologies and the promotion of digital education connections could help overcome the geographical distances between the two states.

Enhanced student exchange programs focusing on Azerbaijani and Urdu languages can deepen people-to-people ties and address communication barriers.

The combined efforts to develop a shared digital academic infrastructure could be valuable in providing several virtual opportunities to the intellectual communities of both nations. Additionally, the two-sided leaderships need to establish a joint research fund to encourage novel intellectual themes to design new research projects. The joint funding could help arrange various seminars, conferences, internships, and educational training while emphasizing critical areas of mutual interest.

The combined programs for joint financial assistance could be an appropriate measure to support further various education activities such as cultural exhibitions, student competitions, and the designing of dual-degree programs. Thus, an exclusive focus of mainstream state authorities on the knowledge-sharing and intellectual growth of their institutional collaboration will facilitate the Pakistani and Azerbaijani governments in achieving landmark intellectual developments to achieve desired outcomes. It will lead both states to solidify their bilateral interaction for their progressive cooperative future beyond the short-term intellectual collaborations.        

The Author is an Assistant Professor, at the Department of International Relations, NUML, Islamabad. (arehman@numl.edu.pk). https://www.numl.edu.pk/faculty/446

Strengthening Academic Collaboration between Pakistan and Azerbaijan   
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