NSU Islamabad has entered a strategic skills-education partnership with Shandong Xinxu International Corporation after a Letter of Understanding signing in Islamabad attended by Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training Dr. Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui. The LoU was signed by Ms. Tracy Li, Chief Executive Officer of Shandong Xinxu, and by Prof. Dr. Muhammad Mukhtar, Founding Vice Chancellor of the National Skills University, with senior university leadership and a high-level Chinese delegation present.
Under the agreement, Shandong Xinxu will make an initial investment of USD 30 million to upgrade NSU Islamabad’s academic infrastructure, laboratories, workshops and training ecosystems to international vocational and applied technology standards. As part of the commitment, Xinxu will provide land for a National Skills University campus in Karachi, with an initial allocation of USD 10 million from the committed funds for that project.
The partnership will modernize curricula using applied, competency-based education models inspired by China’s vocational system, notably the Zibo Polytechnic framework. Key areas of integration include Industry 4.0 technologies, smart manufacturing and automation, digital construction, renewable energy systems and advanced applied engineering, with a clear intent to translate policy-level cooperation into classroom, laboratory and workshop outcomes.
To oversee implementation, the Parties will establish a Joint Steering Committee and operate under a joint governance framework. Given Xinxu’s significant investment and role in developing facilities and systems, the arrangement provides Xinxu a majority strategic interest subject to applicable laws and approvals, while ensuring NSU Islamabad retains its public-sector university status and statutory governance. Enhanced executive authority for international programs and collaborative initiatives will be exercised through Xinxu-nominated leadership in close coordination with NSU’s governing bodies.
Faculty development is central to the collaboration, with Chinese experts supporting training-of-trainers programmes, co-teaching arrangements and the localisation of academic content. This approach aims to build Pakistani faculty capacity over time and raise instructional quality across disciplines at NSU Islamabad.
The agreement offers direct benefits to Pakistani youth through internships, apprenticeships and structured employment pipelines tied to domestic industry, CPEC Phase-II projects and international labour markets, enhancing employability at home and abroad. The planned Karachi campus is envisioned as a flagship centre for advanced vocational training, applied engineering, maritime and logistics education and industry-connected programmes aligned with ports, manufacturing clusters and export-oriented sectors.
The Federal Ministry of Education and Professional Training will play a catalytic role by providing regulatory facilitation, coordination and strategic support to align the partnership with Pakistan’s TVET reforms, the National Skills Strategy, the NVQF framework and Higher Education Commission guidelines. Prof. Dr. Muhammad Mukhtar said the initiative builds on NSU’s mission of turning skills into national assets and preparing youth as globally competitive professionals, while the Federal Minister observed that the NSU–Xinxu agreement combines capital investment, infrastructure development, curriculum reform, faculty capacity building and new campus creation into a practical roadmap for sustainable skills-led development.
