The Senate Standing Committee on Federal Education and Professional Training was briefed on the performance of Quality Enhancement Cells of the Universities that were assessed during 2019-20, and not the overall performance of the universities.
In a statement issued on Monday, the Higher Education Commission has clarified a news item published in a section of the press regarding HEC’s briefing to a Senate body about performance of several universities.
The measurement standards/criteria for QECs and Institutional Performance are different.
The yearly progress of QECs is measured on six quantifiable standards whereas the performance of universities is reviewed against 11 defined standards. The news regarding performance of the universities has been misinterpreted by some newspapers.
The QECs are annually assessed by HEC’s Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) for their performance against the defined parameters. The Yearly Progress Reports of QECs for Financial Year 2018-19 were finalized that were provisionally assessed during 2019-20.
Every university provides Yearly Progress Report against the given criteria and targets, which are (i) Conducting self-review of Institutional Performance Evaluation, (ii) Self-Assessment of Programmes, (iii) Accreditation of Programmes by the Accreditation Councils, (iv) Conduct Self Review MS/MPhil & PhD Programme Review from HEC, Self-Review, NOCs of MS/MPhil & PhD programmes, (v) Strengthening of QECs Secretariat, Memberships of Statutory Bodies & International QA bodies, Conducting of Awareness Seminars/workshops, and (vi) Implementation of HEC’s Quality Assurance guidelines and policies.
The overall performance of a Higher Education Institution (HEI) is reviewed periodically after every five years against 11 defined standards of Institutional Performance Evaluation (IPE).
Universities are implementing the concept of course files which is necessary for building good practices. Universities are trying to consistently hold statutory meetings as per their statutory requirement.
Infrastructure and facilities have been improved. Universities are taking responsibility for conducting IPE with a consistent effort to institutionalize self-assessment and improvement process within HEIs.
