Funded by the U.S. Mission in Pakistan and administered by the United States Educational Foundation in Pakistan, University Partnerships Grants Program 2020-2023 (UPGP) is envisaged to foster bilateral relationships through academic and professional partnerships between Pakistani and American universities.
This program follows the success of the original University Partnerships Program (2012-2015) in which American universities in 20 partnerships with Pakistani universities received grants to establish three-year bilateral relationships. The aim was to enhance peer-to-peer relationships between U.S. and Pakistani universities in the Humanities and the Social Sciences.
QAU-BSU 2012-2015 Partnership was one of these collaborations that focused on strengthening the American Studies program at Area Study Centre for Africa, North and South America, Quaid-i-Azam University through faculty and student exchange, curriculum development, and research training.
In late 2021 Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) and Ball State University (BSU) received a follow-up grant to extend the best practices of the previous program to other universities in Pakistan.
In this partnership, the two universitiescollaborated with Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Women University, Peshawar; Women University Swabi, and University of Swat to strengthen their humanities and social sciences programs.
In 2022, QAU and BSU received a second grant to further expand the program as part of which they started collaborated with 7 more universities from the Federal Capital, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan: International Islamic University, Islamabad; University of Swabi; FATA University; Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan; BUITEMS; University of Turbat, and National University of Science and Technology, Islamabad. Together in both programs, QAU and BSU have organized about 52 virtual lectures and seminars; 40 virtual workshops; and over 300 hours of virtual mentoring in research and pedagogy.
As part of the second grant, afive-day in-person training event was organized in Islamabadin which all 7 universities participated. Three of the BSU faculty travelled to Pakistan to participate in the program alongside QAU resource persons while the rest participated virtually.
