ISLAMABAD: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) is managing internal quality assurance through Quality Enhancement Cells that are being established in a phased manner in all public and private universities.

From the initial 10 Quality Enhancement Cells established in 2005, the number has increased to the present strength of 84. The model of quality assurance put in place nationally in 740 programmes so far will encompass all the programmes of institutes of higher learning in the country, thereby helping to improve the programme quality and enhance student learning.

HEC is facilitating the universities by providing guidelines, trainings, awareness seminars and workshops. A number of steps taken in this regard include the integration of the concept of quality assurance in higher learning to achieve enhanced levels of international compatibility.

For this purpose, the internationally accepted best practices relating to both internal and external quality assurance have been introduced in the higher learning sector of the country and these involve extensive input related to the development of quality criteria, processes and capacity building.

Activities include programme self-assessment at one end to institutional performance review by peers at the other end. The first meeting of the fifth batch of Quality Enhancement Cells was held at HEC Regional Centre Karachi recently.

The Quality Enhancement Cells discussed the implementation status of HEC’s self- assessment model at their respective universities. Parallel to the meeting, a workshop for skill enhancement of Quality Enhancement Cells in the field of quality education was also held. The resource person for this workshop was Dr. Abdul Wahid Usmani, Director QEC, Dow university of Health Sciences Karachi.

In his welcome address, Dr. Azam Ali Khwaja, Managing Director, Quality Assurance Agency highlighted the pivotal role of QEC personnel in strengthening the quality assurance processes within the universities. The closing session of the meeting was presided over by Prof. Dr. A. Q. K. Rajput, Vice Chancellor, Mehran University of Engineering and Science Technology Jamshoro. In his address, he emphasized the importance of quality in higher learning and shared his thoughts in regard to quality enhancement practices in his university. He lauded the efforts of HEC in introducing the Quality Assurance Model in the country.