 |
 |
 |
Rasco |
Tahir |
Khan |
Re-establishing ties forged more than 50 years ago, WSU and the University of Agriculture in Faisalabad (UAF) have entered into a 10-year agreement that will encourage Pakistani graduate students to study at WSU. The pact also will foster joint teaching and collaborative research between the two universities.
UAF is indebted to WSU faculty for helping establish it as the first land-grant-structured university – and now the largest agricultural university – in South Asia, said UAF Vice Chancellor Iqrar Khan.
In a telephone call from his office in Faisalabad, Khan said there are historic linkages between WSU and UAF. WSU’s influences can still be found in both the “concept and the physical buildings” of his campus.
“We still cherish that connection,” he said.
Khan said he hopes the agreement will bring about increased opportunities for graduate training, joint teaching, collaborative research and strategic partnerships.
“We are building bridges in a time of uncertainty, when all of us are facing challenges,” he said, adding that those challenges and uncertainties make bridges between people and between countries even more important.
According to an international program agreement (IPA) signed Aug. 19, faculty at UAF will identify and recommend top students for admission to WSU doctoral programs. If admitted, those students will receive a partial tuition waiver for four years of study.
Barbara Rasco, WSU professor of food science and the IPA program manager for WSU, said the agreement is really a formal acknowledgement that faculty and staff at both universities are committed to building a strong, streamlined, coordinated program for UAF students who want to complete their doctoral studies at WSU.
Tahir Zahoor, the IPA program manager for UAF and a driving force behind the agreement, said he expects 10 to 15 students to enroll at WSU in the next year or so, and dozens more over the next 10 years.
“This is my dream come true,” said Tahir, a UAF associate professor at the National Institute of Food Science and Technology who has been on sabbatical at WSU.
 |
Rasco and Tahir in the lab at WSU. |
He has been working on food safety research in the lab of Dong-Hyun Kang, an associate professor in food science. During that time, Tahir, Kang and Rasco have collaborated on a number of research projects that will lead to joint publications.
It was the fruitfulness of those collaborations that made him determined to create similar opportunities for others, Tahir said. When he arrived at WSU about 15 months ago, he discovered there was only one graduate student from Pakistan – and he had come on his own from UAF.
“That made me crazy,” he said, “and I wanted to do something to get our brilliant students to WSU.”
He found encouragement and support from Rasco and Shyam Sablani, an assistant professor in biological systems engineering. Together they set about developing and getting approval for the IPA.
“I’ve wanted to work in Afghanistan and Pakistan ever since graduate school,” Rasco said. In the 25+ years since then her work has taken her all over the world, including Afghanistan in 2007 and Pakistan in 2008.
In August she was named to the U.S.-Afghanistan-Pakistan Agricultural Working Group with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Foreign Agricultural Services.
 |
UAF representatives during the Aug. 19 signing of the international program agreement. |
With this agreement, she said, WSU will have a greater international impact and will build graduate programs in agriculture and related fields. UAF will benefit from a cadre of WSU-trained scholars and scientists. Both universities will benefit from the teaching and research collaboration.
Along with food safety, Rasco said, UAF has strong programs in dryland farming, cereal and dairy sciences. Pakistan is the second largest producer of chickpeas in the world, one of the top five milk producing countries, and a major producer of wheat, she said.
“There are a lot of areas of crossover between our two universities.”
Indeed, the similarities between soil and climate conditions in Pakistan and Eastern Washington were recognized more than 50 years ago when universities around the country stepped up efforts to share technical assistance with developing countries. According to George A. Frykman, writing in “Creating the People’s University: Washington State University, 1890-1990,” faculty from WSU traveled to Pakistan beginning in 1951 to make recommendations regarding programs in agriculture, business, teacher training, social science and library services.
That partnership continued throughout the decade. In 1961 WSU President Clement C. French entered into an agreement with Pakistan officials to help develop a university that was philosophically and structurally similar to U.S. land-grant universities. With the help of WSU officials, the Punjab Agricultural College and Research Institute was reconfigured as the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad. Stanley P. Swenson, dean of the WSU College of Agriculture from 1949 to 1958, became the first dean of the faculty of agriculture at the new university.
The formal partnership between the two universities continued until 1969, according to Frykman’s research.
Tahir wasn’t aware of this connection when he found Kang’s research. But he was excited about the research possibilities.
With support from his vice chancellor at UAF; Faqir Muhammad Anjum, the director general of the National Institute of Food Science and Technology at UAF; and the Pakistan Higher Education Commission, he arranged his sabbatical at WSU.
Once he arrived and learned about the long-standing ties between WSU and scholars in Pakistan, he was determined to re-energize that relationship.
“Why not now?” he said. “After 50 years we should do it again.”
In fact, the partnership fits well with WSU’s strategic goals of increasing graduate education and strengthening WSU’s global impact and outreach.
“Our partnership with the UAF is one of several strategies to increase the number of high-quality students in our graduate programs,” said Pat Sturko, associate dean of the WSU Graduate School. “The agreement is a great opportunity for both institutions. It facilitates the recruitment of qualified individuals for our doctoral programs and encourages research and academic collaboration between the two universities.”
Rasco said she already is working to help students from UAF complete the WSU application process, with hopes that some may be admitted as soon as spring 2010.
While the program is open to UAF students in any discipline, Kang said he believes the partnership will help WSU continue to build its reputation and research productivity in food safety.
“We are already a very powerful (presence) in global food-safety research,” he said, and this agreement will bring more great people to WSU. “Extremely smart guys from Pakistan can come here and work with us,” he said, and smiled.
