The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has launched the Global Scholars Network (GSN), a new digital platform aimed at connecting Pakistani diaspora academics, researchers, professionals, and international experts with universities across Pakistan.
Developed through the National Academy of Higher Education (NAHE), the platform is designed to serve as a centralized system for academic collaboration between global experts and Pakistan’s higher education institutions.
Under the initiative, overseas scholars and professionals will be able to voluntarily contribute in areas such as PhD supervision, collaborative research, guest lectures, workshops, faculty development, curriculum design, innovation projects, and industry-academia linkages.
According to the HEC, the platform will allow experts to create detailed professional profiles, including their qualifications, research interests, publications, experience, and areas of specialization. Once verified, these profiles will be made accessible to universities across the country.
Institutions will be able to search for experts by discipline, specialization, country, and experience, and can directly initiate collaboration requests, manage engagements, and track outcomes through an integrated system.
The commission said the initiative introduces a more structured and transparent mechanism for academic engagement, replacing fragmented manual processes with a centralized digital platform.
HEC Chairman Prof. Dr. Niaz Ahmad Akhtar said the initiative marks an important step toward the internationalization of Pakistan’s higher education sector by enabling local universities to benefit from global expertise and improved research collaboration.
NAHE Managing Director Dr. Noor Amna Malik said the platform has been designed with scalability, security, and transparency in mind, and will also provide analytics dashboards to support evidence-based policymaking and monitor academic engagement.
The HEC also acknowledged technical support from the Institute of Space Technology (IST) and appreciated the contributions of its development team, led by Director IT Rizwan Majeed, in designing and implementing the platform.
