DENTON (UNT), Texas -- Officials from U.S. and Pakistani universities will be guests of the University of North Texas and the U.S. Department of State for a workshop on best practices in working with Pakistani universities Nov. 12-15 (Wednesday-Saturday) in Denton. The conference will take place at the Holiday Inn in Denton Nov. 12-13 (Wednesday-Thursday) before moving Nov. 14 (Friday) to UNT's Gateway Center, 801 North Texas Blvd.

UNT was chosen to host the University Partnerships Conference because it received one of 19 grants from the State Department's Public Diplomacy Programs for Afghanistan and Pakistan to start a partnership with the National University of Modern Languages in Islamabad, Pakistan. The three-year, $1 million grant, awarded in 2012, allows UNT faculty members to travel to Islamabad to assist with curriculum restructuring in NUML's graduate Department of English, and NUML faculty members and graduate students visiting UNT for curriculum development training and research with UNT faculty members. The UNT-NUML partnership is directed by Masood Ashraf Raja, UNT associate professor of English, with the program's office located in the UNT Department of English.

Approximately 60 representatives from the other 18 funded programs will attend the workshop to collaborate with all partnership administrators and Department of State officials about best practices for such grant operations and to allow meetings between US and Pakistani officials about possible future agreements between institutions. The State Department's grants officer for the Public Diplomacy Programs for Afghanistan and Pakistan and the chair and officials from the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan are expected to attend. Warren Burggren, UNT provost and vice president for academic affairs, will give the keynote speech at 7 p.m. Nov. 12 (Wednesday).

Note to reporters and editors: The workshop will be open to members of the media on Nov. 14 (Friday) only. For more information, contact:

Masood Raja Ahmad, conference director -- mraja@unt.edu

Ahmad Shabbar, conference coordinator -- AhmadShabbar@my.unt.edu

Andrew Tolle, UNT-NUML project coordinator -- 940-565-3485 or Andrew.Tolle@unt.edu.