February 4, 2006	Saturday	Muharram 5, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, Feb 3: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has decided to set up Quality Enhancement Cells (QEC) in public- sector universities to enhance quality of higher education in the country.

Initially, the commission has selected 10 universities for the QEC’s initiative, which will later be extended to the entire country, said an official statement.

These cells will be responsible for the planning and implementation of quality assurance mechanism in their respective universities.

Officials to be appointed in these QECs are being trained in evaluation methods designed for quality assurance and academic quality audit in higher education institutions.

Several meetings of QECs of 10 universities have been held to review the progress of these cells. A workshop on modern theories and practices of quality assurance has already been held while another workshop on academic quality audit in higher education institutions is being held at the HEC.

The objective of the workshop is to train the participants in improving the quality of higher education and to bring it on par with international standards.

Besides heads of QECs, representative of private sector universities participated in the workshop and shared their views and experiences in this regard.

Several academic audit models have been discussed in the workshop. The participants appreciated the HEC’s efforts in this regard and termed the implementation of academic audit a must and suggested to set internationally accepted standards for the valuation of institutions different programmes.

The higher education institutions will be accredited and rated on the basis of evaluation and academic audit report. The HEC has also decided to support other universities as well for the establishment of quality enhancement cells in near future.