LUMS and University of East Anglia Announce Economics PhD Partnership
The Chaudhry Nazar Muhammad Department of Economics, Mushtaq Ahmad Gurmani School of Humanities and Social Sciences (MGSHSS) and the School of Economics at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in the UK, have collaborated to set up an Economics PhD partnership. This fully-funded partnership in Economics is integral to advancing the no-borders vision of LUMS and expanding opportunities of collaboration and knowledge sharing between LUMS and UEA.
As part of this joint programme, PhD students of Pakistani origin will be selected to undertake their studies at the University of East Anglia, under the supervision of scholars at both departments of Economics.
The PhD programme will be a standard UEA three-year PhD programme plus one year of writing, for a total of four years. The first year of study includes required coursework that must be undertaken at the University of East Anglia, after which it is expected that the student may travel between the universities to undertake fieldwork.
The University of East Anglia is ranked amongst the UK’s top 10 for Economics by the Guardian University Guide 2021, and is ranked number 200 overall in World University Rankings 2021. “Partnering allows UEA and LUMS to pool Economics faculty resources to provide a stronger graduate programme experience to our PhD students than either Department could manage alone,” says Dr. Ali Hasanain, Associate Professor and Head of Department, Chaudhry Nazar Muhammad Department of Economics, MGSHSS.
“The split-site arrangement allows students to travel between universities after completing their coursework at UEA, and thus creates access to a PhD programme for students who may face difficulty in residing outside Pakistan for an extended period to pursue graduate study. Historically, about two-thirds of the LUMS MS Economics class comprises of women students, including many who face travel constraints; the new PhD programme complements our existing MS in creating more inclusive access to education in Economics for Pakistan-based students,” explains Dr. Hasanain.
The Department of Economics at LUMS is the largest in Pakistan, with 21 PhD faculty members and 14 adjunct faculty members and teaching fellows, who have graduated from renowned international institutions.
“In the last decade, the Department has substantially expanded its global collaborations. Our faculty have undertaken research projects with co-authors from nearly every Ivy League university and top institutions in Europe. This is a milestone collaboration that will add to the integrity and excellence of knowledge at LUMS,” said Dr. Ali Khan, Dean, MGSHSS.