By: Our Correspondent
Professor Nusrat Husain, Professor of Psychiatry and Director Research Global Mental Health at the University of Manchester(UoM), welcomed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Minister for Education Mr. Meena Khan, and the Vice Chancellor of Khyber Medical University (KMU) Prof. Dr. Zia Ul Haq during their visit to Manchester. The meeting focused on strengthening UK-Pakistan academic collaboration, enhancing regional research networks, and initiating joint projects in education and mental health. Prof Husain briefed about the ground-breaking research from Pakistan and funded by NIHR including the Affordable Cardiac Rehabilitation Outreach Inter-Disciplinary Strategic Study (ACROSS) (NIHR203082), the Integrated Psychosocial Care Plan for Depression in Breast Cancer patients (Moving on ABC) (NIHR205561), BURNS rehabilitation (NIHR203082) and prevention of suicide which is the second leading cause of death in young people (MRC Ref: MR/R022461/1). The delegate discussed with Professor Keith Brennan, Vice-Dean for Internationalisation, University of Manchester, about their interest in joint programmes with the medical school, psychology and allied health aimed at developing future leaders in healthcare and research.
The Pakistan delegation included Dr. Amna Noureen, recipient of the NIHR GHR SPARC (R5-306698), and Rabia Sattar recipient of the NIHR GHR SPARC(R5-306683), Prof Aneela Maqsood Professorial Research Scientist, Muqaddas Asif, Bushra Ali Shah from Pakistan Institute of Living and learning (PILL), Dr Atta Asif, Senior Scientist at Manchester Global Foundation. The Ministerial delegation, included Prof Dr Jalil Khan, Director Family Medicine, KMU, Mr. Sajid Inam, Secretary Higher Education Regulatory Authority, Govt of KP, Pakistan. The delegate also toured the University’s state-of-the-art engineering laboratories with Dr Kamal Qazi from the Engineering department. The discussion was around the use of biotechnology in improving the health and wellbeing and reducing health inequalities.
The KP Education Minister praised Prof Husain and PILL’s leadership in driving research excellence and expressed a strong commitment to supporting initiatives that will promote educational growth, research capacity, and innovative projects in KP and beyond.
