City Desk
Islamabad: The Institute of Regional Studies (IRS) and Alhamd Islamic University (AIU), with the Global Strategic Institute for Sustainable Development, concluded a two-day international conference titled “Higher Education at the Crossroads: Local Action, Global Sustainability.” Vice-chancellors, academics, researchers, policy experts and students from Pakistan and abroad discussed how universities can tackle local challenges while contributing to global sustainability.
The inaugural session featured addresses by AIU President Prof. Dr. Shakeel Roshan and IRS President Ambassador Jauhar Saleem, with keynotes from the vice-chancellors of the Universities of Chitral and Swat and IRS researchers. Lt. Gen. Asif Yasin Malik (Retd) was chief guest.
Technical sessions covered localising sustainability goals, education policy and governance, digital learning and AI, curriculum reform, climate literacy, ethical leadership and institutional resilience. International scholars from the UK and Nigeria joined online, and video sessions from Quetta added regional perspectives. A panel stressed aligning degree programmes with national priorities, responding to generative AI, building partnerships with industry and government, and widening opportunities for girls and marginalised communities.
A key outcome was a proposed IRS-AIU collaboration framework linking academic research with policymaking, including a policy fellowship in which selected students would gain hands-on training in research methods, policy analysis and policy brief writing under IRS supervision.
The conference ended with a call for stronger cooperation among universities, government, industry and civil society. IRS Research Fellow Syed Imran Sardar said universities must evolve into engines of innovation, policymaking and sustainable development.
