The Pakistan Network of Quality Assurance in Higher Education (PNQAHE), established in December 2017, boasts a membership exceeding one hundred universities. The Executive Committee's elected members oversee its operations, including Dr Erum Monis, Deputy Director of Quality Assurance at the National University of Medical Sciences, Rawalpindi.

The 4th International Quality Conference of PNQAHE occurred on March 4th-5th, 2024, at the Jinnah Convention Centre, Islamabad. With over 800 participants representing approximately 80 universities and 169 colleges nationwide, the event attracted notable figures from both public and private universities. The conference, which was live-streamed across various social media platforms, facilitated valuable collaborations with esteemed institutions such as The Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC), Khyber Medical University, Riphah International University; Sindh Agriculture University Tandojam, Sindh; Iqra University, Islamabad; University of Child Health Sciences / Children's Hospital Lahore, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, University of Swabi and University of Gujrat.

The conference featured a series of highly fruitful sessions, including workshops addressing crucial topics such as:

• Navigating Inclusion: Adapting Quality Assurance for the Challenges faced by HEI in supporting Diverse Student Populations, presented by Fabrice Henard from Paris, France.
• Stakeholders' Involvement in Quality Assurance Processes, led by Dr. Jakub Grodecki from Poland.
• Constructive Alignment in Teaching, Learning, and Assessment, presented by Dr. Bassam Al Hamad from Bahrain.
• Dr. Eltjo Bazen from the Netherlands presented Quality Assurance in Work-Based Learning.
• Dr. Selva Staub from Turkey presented Intended Learning Outcomes and Elements of Learning Outcome-based Assessment.
• Considering Generative AI in Higher Education Policy, Learning, Teaching, and Student Experience by Ms. Emilia Todorova from Gibraltar.
• PSG-2023: A Strategic Roadmap of Transformation in Higher Education, presented by Nasir Shah, Director-General of the Quality Assurance Agency at HEC Pakistan.

The opening ceremony, graced by Chairman HEC, Prof Dr Mukhtiar Ahmed, highlighted PNQAHE's significant contributions to promoting higher education standards. The plenary session on March 5th, 2024, chaired by Consultant Quality Assurance Directorate NUMS, Air Cdre Muhammad Ismail (Retd), further underscored the commitment to enhancing quality assurance in higher education.

Recasting Best Practices of European Universities during Pandemic for Improving Online Education (RAPID) is a consortium of ten partner organizations from Europe (Norway, Sweden, Italy) and Pakistan (Sukkur IBA University, Higher Education Commission Islamabad, LUMS Lahore, IBA Karachi, University of Balochistan, University of Turbat, University of Baltistan).

RAPID aims to strengthen online education in Pakistan by replicating the best practices in distance learning during pandemic at European universities. The main objectives of RAPID are:

• To develop a national policy for online education in Pakistan
• To strengthen faculty capacity in e-learning in Pakistan
• To establish an e-learning infrastructure at remote universities of Pakistan

There are three main steps of RAPID for Integrating Technology & Pedagogical Aspects for Online Teaching:

• Faculty Capacity Building
• Infrastructure Development
• Online Education Policy Development

A 3-day webinar was organized by the RAPID project during October 9-11, 2023 to facilitate faculty and staff members of Pakistani HEIs with experiences and lessons learned during COVID by the European partners. 

Zenun Kastrati Associate Professor Department of Informatics LNU Sweden, Ali Shariq Imran Associate Professor Department of Computer Science NTNU Norway, Paolo Bottoni Professor Department of Informatics Sapienza University of Rome Italy, Stephano Faralli, Associate Professor Sapienza University Rome Italy, Rune Hjelsvold, Professor NTNU, Norway were the key presenters from RAPID in different sessions.

Q&A sessions were held on every day of the webinar, in which participants took part very efficiently. Focal persons of universities collaborating with RAPID in Pakistan, also shared their progress and framework about online education.

NUMS was invited to attend the workshop by HEC Dr Erum Monis, DD QA, represented NUMS along with QA Team members and received a certificate of contribution during the workshop/webinar.

NUMS Quality Assurance Directorate is the focal Dte. for sending NUMS Clubs and society to showcase their projects in the international arena. Therefore, this project was nominated along with another project from NUMS for the MacJannet Prize 2023, which was  set up by the Talloires Network, established in 2005, and the MacJannet Foundation to recognize exceptional student community engagement initiatives. Talloires Network is a network of 431 engaged universities from 86 countries which contributes morally through promoting these projects among Tallories Network Partner universities like NUMS. Financial assistance is provided to the top three award winners for their ongoing public service efforts.

According to recent report published in 2022, 22 million people in Pakistan are affected with renal problems, and out of these around 22,000 develop End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) every year. Under the slogan of World Health Organization (WHO) – promoting health for all – NK2 is passionate to work on several United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), particularly SDG 3 (Good Health and Wellbeing), SDG 4 (Quality Education), SDG 5 (Gender Equality), SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities), and SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals).

The term “Kidney Care” is used to describe a broad range of activities aimed at promoting compassion and kindness in society. These activities include providing for the physical and mental wellbeing of renal patients as well as those who are impacted by their medical condition. By fostering a sense of kinship with a stranger in order to foster kindness and charity, NUMS as a medical university is fulfilling its role as kindred. Kindred Kinship focuses majorly on the mental and emotional health of renal patients. It places a substantial emphasis on the health and happiness of those who are either directly or indirectly impacted by kidney diseases. It not only offers kidney disease patients treatment through coping techniques, but also raises awareness of renal disease among the general public. Moreover, it takes into account the welfare of healthcare workers, including medical staff so as to enhance their efficiency.

The MacJannet Prize Selection Committee highly appreciated the civic and community engagement work carried out by the students of National University of Medical Sciences (NUMS) Civic Society – Kindred Kinship (NK2): Kidney Care community services program led by Ms. Saira Javed, Lecturer in the Department of Psychology. The Project received honorable mention for the 2023 MacJannet Prize. The highlight of the program is the strong student leadership component, dedication to addressing mental health issues, and community impact on combating social stigmas.  

A profile for the Kindred Kinship (NK2): Kidney Care program has now been uploaded on the Talloires Network website that displays the program narrative, key statistics, logos, pictures, quotes of patients, and student social workers, reflecting the resolve of our students to serve the kidney patients of various communities. The link to the page is as follows: Click Here

A comprehensive video showing the NK2 journey is available on the following link: Click Here

More Information: Click Here

The Association of Quality Assurance Agencies of the Islamic World (IQA), and National Accreditation Agency for Higher Education (BAN-PT), Jakarta, Indonesia, jointly hosted the IQA International Webinar 2021, Series 2 on "Higher Education Accreditation amidst Covid-19 and New Normal: Opportunities and Challenges", on March 30, and April 06, 2021. The event was also supported and co-hosted by Universitas Islam Indonesia (UII), Universitas Islam Negeri Syarif Hidayatullah (UIN Jakarta), and Universitas Islam Negeri Maulana Malik Ibrahim (UIN Malang).

National University of Medical Sciences, Pakistan nominated  Ms Sara Shafiq, Lecturer Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences (DSBS), to reflect her ideas on " Faculty Experiences and Challenges" in the  April 06, 2021 session. Ms Sara Shafiq was the only speaker selected by IQA from Pakistan. The other speakers/discussants were from Indonesia, Malaysia, Egypt, Turkey, Bahrain and North Cyprus. 

The speakers shared their experiences and statistics from the countries of the Islamic world on the subject topic. Ms Sara Shafiq, highlighted that the Covid-19 pandemic has created largest turmoil in the academic sector in human history. According to United Nation 2020 report, it has affected more than 1.6 billion students around the globe. She based her talk on the focused group discussions, interviews, personal narratives and experiences to reflect on the challenges faced by faculty of selected Pakistani Universities including NUMS and identified the opportunities that arose due to the pandemic. The Pandemic has provided the academic world an opportunity to enhance their skills with the rapidly growing Digital technology.

It was highlighted that although challenging, the Pandemic situation has brought academia of the world together, sharing best practices and learning experiences on platforms like the webinar provided by the IQA today.

Young faculty were able to adapt to the technological platforms but conventional teachers, who preferred face to face teaching, felt the pressure and had to upgrade their computing skills. She expressed that there was no substitute for practical work requirements, and most have to wait for lockdowns to ease before professional practical work could be completed. 

Director QA NUMS, Air Cdre Muhammad Ismail, SI(M), (Retd) is on the Panel of External/International reviewers of Oman Authority for Academic Accreditation and Quality Assurance of Education (OAAAQA).

Recently, OAAAQA engaged Air Cdre Muhammad Ismail for the Re-assessment of the Institutional standards of Sur University college (SUC), Oman, along with Prof Dr Diane Meehan, Quality consultant / Dean of Faculty at Liverpool John Moores University UK, Dr Azzah Al Maskari, Dean The University of Technology and Applied Science, Ibra, Oman and Ms Wafa Al-Mansoori from Bahrain, the Review Director.

The Panel reviewed the SUC’s Application for Re-assessment of the results of Audit Report prepared earlier and each member of the Panel forwarded the analysis of the report along with the comments/queries and requirement of further information/data to the Review Director, who coordinated with the SUC for the purpose.

Later, a 3-day visit of the panel to the SUC was planned on 13-15 February, 2022. Dr Azzah and Ms Wafa went to the SUC physically and Dr Meehan and Air Cdre Muhammad Ismail joined the visiting team virtually due to the Covid-19 restrictions. During three days of the visit, in order to verify the information provided through the application and the supporting material, the panel held separate interview sessions with Representatives Board of Trustees, Dean SUC, Assistant Deans, Heads of Academic Departments, Faculty Members from Foundation, Undergraduate and Graduate Programs, UG/PG students, Head of Quality Assurance Unit, Heads of Administration units and Alumni. Besides, the Review Panel interviewed representatives of SUC’s affiliating universities, namely, American University in Cairo, Egypt, Bond University Australia and Ain Shams University, Egypt. Afterwards, the panel had a private meeting to consolidate the results of the visit to be incorporated in the final report of the Re-assessment/audit of the Institutional Standards of SUC.

The Oman Authority for Academic Accreditation and Quality Assurance (OAAAQA) of Education is charged with regulating the quality of higher education in Oman to ensure the maintenance of a level that meets international standards, and to encourage educational institutions to improve their internal quality assurance systems. Director QA NUMS, Air Cdre Muhammad Ismail (Retd) is on the Panel of External Reviewers of OAAAQA since 2007. He has been previously engaged by the Authority for quality audits of the several Omani institutions of higher Education. Recently, he was invited to join a Panel for the Institutional Standard Re-Assessment of the German University of Technology (GUtech) in Oman. Besides Air Cdre Ismail, the Panel comprised of Dr Achim Hopbach, Independent Consultant Higher Education (Austria), Dr Ahmed Hassan Al Bulushi, Dean, College of Engineering, National University, Oman, Dr P. Mani Joseph, Prof. and Head Modern College of Business and Science Oman while Dr Hamadi Dhaou from Tunisia was the Review Director of OAAAQA.  The Panel was required to visit GUtech Oman from 18 – 20 May, 2021 but due to Covid-19 pandemic restrictions the physical visit was replaced by virtual visit. Through online conferences the panel sought clarifications form different groups and the individuals from the University to prepare the Reassessment Report.

Talloires Network (TN) (https://talloiresnetwork.tufts.edu/) is an international association of institutions committed to promoting community service, civic engagement, and service learning in higher education. Since its establishment in September 2005, with its Secretariat at Tufts University, USA, the Network has grown to 388 members in 77 countries with a combined enrollment of over 6 million students. 

TN aims at expanding higher education civic engagement programs through teaching, research, and public service; applying higher education standards of excellence and peer review to community engagement, and; fostering partnerships between universities and communities to empower groups and individuals to tackle societal issues and shape the future of higher education

NUMS can benefit from this membership through:

• Visibility amongst the international members of the network
• Possibility to join some international civic engagement activity
• Showcasing the civic engagements of NUMS Students/Faculty
• Opportunity to compete for MacJannet Prize Award.

MacJannet Prize (https://talloiresnetwork.tufts.edu/about-the-macjannet-prize/) has been established by TN to recognize exceptional student community engagement initiatives at member universities and contribute financially to their ongoing public service efforts through following categories of programs:

• Student volunteer placement programs
• Institution-managed community outreach programs
• Domestic service-learning programs
• International service-learning programs
• Student-managed community engagement

Three Pakistani universities, namely; Aga Khan University, NUST and Ziauddin University have won this prize for their civic engagement programs in 2009, 2015 and 2016 respectively.

NUMS students/ faculty are encouraged to involve themselves in civic engagement/ community service activities in an organized manner to benefit the society and raise the profile of NUMS in general and their respective institutions in particular at international level.

To take the quality enhancement agenda forward, Higher Education Commission Pakistan (HEC) organized a Conference in collaboration with the Council for Higher Education and Accreditation (CHEA), US and United Sates Education Foundation Pakistan (USEFP).

Director Quality Assurance, Air Cdre Muhammad Ismail, SI (M) (Retd), Director Academics, Brig. Dilshad Ahmed Khan, Head of NDHPE, Dr. Aisha Rauf and Assistant Director Quality Assurance, Dr Erum Monis represented NUMS in the Conference.

The Conference, held on 4^th – 5^th December 2019, aimed at advancing mutual understanding of international quality assurance standards by bringing together selected members of CHEA's International Quality Group.

The themes of the conference were:

• Issues and challenges of developing quality assurance system, standards and policies
• Improving faculty quality: role of training and capacity building
• Role of quality assurance in teaching excellence framework
• Role of quality assurance in research excellence framework
• Role of accreditation bodies and accreditation parameters
• Ranking systems and performance of HEIs.

President Dr Arif Alvi, while speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the Conference, emphasized the need for universities to improve their syllabuses and bring them into consonance with social and psychological needs of the students. He further added that “Education must be pleasure and should not keep students under a perpetual stress of achievement”.

US Ambassador, Paul Jones said the United States was proud of its educational linkages with Pakistan. He said the US had recently entered into 23 partnerships with Pakistani institutions, adding that 100 Pakistanis were sent to the US under the US-Pakistan Academic and Cultural Exchange Programme. The US envoy further said his country had so far awarded 19,000 need-based scholarships to Pakistani students.

Speaking at the event, Shafqat Mahmood said new education policy was being prepared which would be finalized soon. For upbringing uniformity in the education sector, which is currently divided into three streams, a national curriculum was being developed which would be taught in all systems of education, including madrassahs. He said there was also a need for authentic education data as available data was not much reliable.

Punjab Education Minister Murad Raas emphasized the need to create a consensus on a unified educational framework between the federal and provincial governments.He also called for robust examination system to improve the educational system, in addition to setting the curricula in line with international standards.He said by 2020, the Punjab education department will be fully digitized in making decisions related to education.

Besides local speakers, ten international speakers hailing from US, UK, Italy, India, Sri Lanka, Spain, Tajikistan and Afghanistan also presented their papers on different aspects of the quality assurance.

To conclude, the conference shared lessons to identify options for international cooperation for advancing the shared agenda; review national and regional developments in quality assurance in higher education; highlight initiatives for making teaching and pedagogy more effective; develop a teaching excellence framework; and, promote networking between national and international institutions of higher education.Also, to obtain intellectual input for the development of frameworks for teaching excellence and research excellence in Pakistan, promoting synergies between HEC, QAA, international quality assurance bodies, higher education ministries and organizations.

To take the quality enhancement agenda forward, Higher Education Commission Pakistan (HEC) organized a Conference in collaboration with the Council for Higher Education and Accreditation (CHEA), US and United Sates Education Foundation Pakistan (USEFP).

Director Quality Assurance, Air Cdre Muhammad Ismail, SI (M) (Retd), Director Academics, Brig. Dilshad Ahmed Khan, Head of NDHPE, Dr. Aisha Rauf and Assistant Director Quality Assurance, Dr Erum Monis represented NUMS in the Conference.

The Conference, held on 4^th – 5^th December 2019, aimed at advancing mutual understanding of international quality assurance standards by bringing together selected members of CHEA's International Quality Group.

The themes of the conference were:

• Issues and challenges of developing quality assurance system, standards and policies
• Improving faculty quality: role of training and capacity building
• Role of quality assurance in teaching excellence framework
• Role of quality assurance in research excellence framework
• Role of accreditation bodies and accreditation parameters
• Ranking systems and performance of HEIs.

President Dr Arif Alvi, while speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the Conference, emphasized the need for universities to improve their syllabuses and bring them into consonance with social and psychological needs of the students. He further added that “Education must be pleasure and should not keep students under a perpetual stress of achievement”.

US Ambassador, Paul Jones said the United States was proud of its educational linkages with Pakistan. He said the US had recently entered into 23 partnerships with Pakistani institutions, adding that 100 Pakistanis were sent to the US under the US-Pakistan Academic and Cultural Exchange Programme. The US envoy further said his country had so far awarded 19,000 need-based scholarships to Pakistani students.

Speaking at the event, Shafqat Mahmood said new education policy was being prepared which would be finalized soon. For upbringing uniformity in the education sector, which is currently divided into three streams, a national curriculum was being developed which would be taught in all systems of education, including madrassahs. He said there was also a need for authentic education data as available data was not much reliable.

Punjab Education Minister Murad Raas emphasized the need to create a consensus on a unified educational framework between the federal and provincial governments.He also called for robust examination system to improve the educational system, in addition to setting the curricula in line with international standards.He said by 2020, the Punjab education department will be fully digitized in making decisions related to education.

Besides local speakers, ten international speakers hailing from US, UK, Italy, India, Sri Lanka, Spain, Tajikistan and Afghanistan also presented their papers on different aspects of the quality assurance.

To conclude, the conference shared lessons to identify options for international cooperation for advancing the shared agenda; review national and regional developments in quality assurance in higher education; highlight initiatives for making teaching and pedagogy more effective; develop a teaching excellence framework; and, promote networking between national and international institutions of higher education.Also, to obtain intellectual input for the development of frameworks for teaching excellence and research excellence in Pakistan, promoting synergies between HEC, QAA, international quality assurance bodies, higher education ministries and organizations.