Zubair Qureshi
Executive Director COMSATS Dr SM Junaid Zaidi called on Ambassador of Somalia to Pakistan Khadija Mohamed Almakhzoumi at the embassy of Somalia here on Thursday and discussed scope of COMSATS programmes’ expansion to her country.
It was agreed during the meeting that Somalia’s human resource development needs would be prioritised by COMSATS, especially by way of effective higher education opportunities. Somalia’s envoy expressed her desire to benefit from a number of COMSATS’ post-graduate scholarships/post-doctoral fellowships available at its Centres of Excellence in different member countries: Pakistan (COMSATS University Islamabad and International Centre for Chemical and Biological Sciences), Kazakhstan (Al-Farabi Kazakh National University) and Egypt (National Research Centre). Specifically, twenty-five post-graduate scholarships are planned to be set aside for Somali students for studying at COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI), Islamabad. The institutional and technical needs of Somalia would be catered through research facilities, faculty, student and research exchange among COMSATS 22 Member strong Network, and relevant partner organizations and institutions in 27 member states and around the globe.
As COMSATS’ member state, Somalia is well placed to benefit nationally for S&T research through bilateral and multilateral cooperation with the Centres of Excellence in 20 countries. The Network of Centres of Excellence have a strong portfolio in a number of important fields, many of which have strong bearing on the UN’s 2030 Global Agenda; these include higher education and R&D, ICTs, Agriculture, Biotechnology, Mathematics and Engineering; Industrial technology and research; Health; Water Research; Climate Change and Environment; and chemical and biological sciences.
