HEC reviews varsities’ compliance with quality assurance mechanism

HEC’s panels of experts have already examined performance of 100 universities

Karachi

The Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan has constituted several panels of experts to review the performance of higher education institutions across the country with the aim of ensuring the universities adhered to the defined quality assurance criteria and guidelines, a commission official told The News on Saturday. 

Complying with the special directive of the prime minister, the HEC had reviewed quality assurance and governance mechanism of 100 universities, in both the public and private sectors, while 50 more varsities would be reviewed in the coming week, he said.

The current phase of the review is expected to be completed by the end of March.

The official said the initiative would not only improve the quality of teaching and research in the universities, but also sensitise the higher learning institutions to the need for contributing to the socio-economic priorities of the country. 

HEC Chairman Professor Dr Mukhtar Ahmad had issued special instructions to expedite the process being carried out under the auspices of the HEC’s Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), he further said. 

“Before starting this review process, the HEC had convened a brainstorming session in November 2015 with expert academicians to finalise the parameters for a review of the universities’ performance.”

The session, held at the commission’s secretariat, was chaired by the chairman and attended by a number of academic experts and quality practitioners from across the country, many of whom joined the session through video-conferencing.

In that session, improving the overall governance of the universities in the broader context of aligning the higher education system with the national priorities was discussed at length, and after thorough deliberations several parameters were finalised, the official mentioned.