ISLAMABAD, MAR 17 (DNA) -The Pak France Higher Education week came to an end on Friday. 20 French universities visited different cities of Pakistan for five days, culminating yesterday in the celebration of a “French Day” at the Higher Education Commission, co organized by the HEC and attended by the Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training, Engineer Muhammad Balighur Rehman.

This event echoes a first “Pakistan Higher Education Day” held in France last year, as the relations are strengthening with the establishment of new offices of Campus France, the French Higher Education promotion agency, across Pakistan.

Among the universities visiting Pakistan this week were some of the most important French institutions, as the Conference des Grandes Ecoles, Agreenium, Centrale Nantes, ENSA Nantes, INSA Lyon, Paris 1 – Sorbonne, Sorbonne Abu Dhabi.

This large presence of 20 institutions reflects the real interest of French scholars to build more bridges with Pakistan. All were enthusiastic regarding future cooperation; they greatly appreciated discovering Pakistan and were deeply grateful to have been welcomed so warmly in this country.

As stated by Martine Dorance, Ambassador of France, the two countries have forged a strong and long lasting agenda of cooperation in academic and scientific fields. Over the past years, hundreds of Pakistani students have obtained their PhD in the best higher education institutions.

This agenda is deemed to be reinforced after this French week in Pakistan, as new avenues for cooperation and concrete exchanges have been explored. France is eager to increase the number of Pakistani students in its universities and will welcome them with open arms.

New partnerships -apart from the rich scientific cooperation already maintained- in the fields of social sciences, especially business and management as well as archeology, will be developed.

This successful Pak France Higher Education Week is also a reflection, more broadly, of the long lasting and vivid friendship ties enjoyed by France and Pakistan for 70 years, as France was one of the first countries to recognize the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in 1947.=DNA

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