ISLAMABAD: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has finalised a draft of minimum quality standards manual for affiliated colleges. The manual also contains guidelines for carrying out the colleges assessment.

The main focus is to improve quality of education and discourage trend of opening fake, substandard and bogus institutions in which students have been wasting their time and resources, it has been learnt.

An official of the HEC requesting not to be identified said that under the manual, a total of nine standards are developed and each deals with specific dimension of the institutional quality.

Universities will have to consider all standards which contain 100 points before affiliating an institution.

“Vision, mission and goals will carry 5 points, academic programmes and evaluation will carry 10 points, student admission and progression 10 points, academic faculty and non-academic staff 10 points and physical infrastructure, academic facilities and learning resources will carry 20 points,” he said.

“Moreover, organisation, governance and financial management 20 points, research 3 points, public disclosure and transparency 15 points and 7 points will be given for community link and outreach,” he said.

“The objective to introduce new standards is to enhance the capacity of affiliated colleges of Pakistan, provide baseline knowledge and skills necessary for the principals, modernisation of syllabi and to improve the quality of teaching in affiliated colleges,” he said.

According to official statement issued by the HEC, as many as 10 principals and 18 experts from quality enhancement cells of universities attended the meeting.

The manual was finalised after incorporating suggestions and recommendations of experts.

Once approved by the HEC authorities, the manual will be used as a tool for performance evaluation of colleges affiliated with universities in Pakistan.