by Tahir Ali

 

PESHAWAR, Mar.26 (Gwadar Pro) - In view of the importance of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) venture, the China Study Centre (CSC), University of Peshawar is all set to introduce bachelor, master and doctorate programmes in Chinese, which would be beneficial in the long run for Pakistani youth to get full advantages of the project.

 

CSC was established with financial and technical support of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China Islamabad, in 2016 at the University of Peshawar. The objectives of the centre are to promote research on Pak-China relations, to stimulate the study of Chinese language, history and culture, to poster people-to-people contact and to highlight the benefits of joint projects between the two countries like CPEC.

 

During an exclusive interview with Gwadar Pro, Director of CSC Professor Dr. Zahid Anwar said that the centre currently offers one-month language course for students who are travelling to China for studies or who wish to work in CPEC projects.

 

MPhil PhD Programmes: “We plan to start B.S, MPhil, MS or PhD programmes, hopefully late this year,” Mr. Anwar told Gwadar Pro. He said that he and his team worked hard to make ‘statutes’ for the centre and now they were working to prepare courses for semesters. “We are working to prepare outlines for MPhil and PhD courses and in the next phase we will approve those courses and statues from the relevant bodies,” he said and added, “After the approval, we would announce admission; we are very near to achieving our target and hopefully it will happen this year”. He said that Pakistani teachers with experience in relevant Chinese fields would give the courses. “However, as faculty exchange, we may invite Chinese experts to come and deliver lectures to our students.”

 

CSC works as linkage: According to Mr. Anwar, with the efforts of CSC, University of Peshawar signed MOUs with Beijing University of Chemical Technologies, Northwest University Shiyan, China Institute of International Studies Beijing, Jiangsu University of China while MOUs with three other Chinese Universities are in the final stage. The centre also sent faculty and PhD students to China and received short training, “thus the CSC is helping students and faculties to get training of international standard in China,” he said.    

 

Chinese Scholarship: CSC helps facilitate the needy and deserving students of University of Peshawar in getting Chinese Scholarships. “Last year, the Chinese Embassy offered Rs. 2 million as scholarships for students while in 2021 the amount of scholarship has been raised to Rs. 70 million,” he said. CSC also helped send faculty members of University of Peshawar to China to have training of international standard.

 

Another development is China Pakistan Universities Consortium (CPUC) under CPEC, which provides an opportunity of collaboration with Chinese Universities; through the efforts of CSC, University of Peshawar is now a member of CPUC.

 

China Today: CSC also organises weeklong workshops where the resource persons discuss culture, civilisation, language, political system, constitution, economy and wisdom of China; they also give presentations on Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), CPEC and contemporary development in China to enhance understanding about China amongst KP students and people.

 

According to Dr. Zahid Anwar, if the corona pandemic subsided, he plans to invite Chinese experts and organise different programs including International Conference on CPEC and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation with Chinese experts.

 

 

 

CPEC, Corridor of Knowledge: According to Mr. Anwar, with CPEC processing, the number of Pakistani students has increased in China and currently over 30,000 are enrolled there. At the completion of CPEC early harvest programs, 7000 to 80,000 Pakistani citizens got jobs; actually, CPEC is an opportunity and a great leap forward to the economic development of Pakistan. “CPEC is a breeze of opportunities, which the students and youth of Pakistan are now inhaling; sooner than later, they will realise the true nature of those huge opportunities,” he said. He also terms the second phase of CPEC as a “corridor of knowledge and higher education”.

 

Importance of the Chinese Language: “Luckily, China is our neighbour and has always proven to be a friend in need. Therefore, if learning Chinese gives economic benefit to our youth then there is nothing wrong with learning the language at school level. If learning Chinese helps us raise our living standard, we should learn it,” he said and added, “However, we should protect our own Urdu language, cultural and spiritual values as well”.