The Higher Education Commission, Pakistan has been systematically implementing the agenda for reforms outlined in the HEC Medium Term Development Framework (MTDF) which has identified Access, Quality and Relevance as the key areas in this regard.
To address these challenges, a comprehensive strategy was outlined that identified the core strategic aims for reform as i) Faculty Development, ii) Improving Access, iii) Excellence in Learning and Research, and iv) Relevance to National Priorities.
In order to improve the performance of Higher Education Institutes(HEIs), HEC started with primary step of outlining the Performance Evaluation Standards for the HEIs to be used for the purpose.
A total of eleven standards are defined in the Institutional Performance Evaluation(IPE) Manual and all the eleven standards are equally important to be met by the HEIs to achieve the desired certification to quality provision in higher education, international visibility and significant place in the regional and international rankings of the HEIs.
The Institute of Human Skill Development (IHSD), Lahore, was developed to enhance human skills in diversified fields/areas which was working to achieve its mission for the last five years.
In this connection, IHSD organized a one day in-person workshop titled ‘Institutional Performance Evaluation, Efficiency and Effectiveness of Dimensional Model for Higher Education Institutions’
The main purpose of the workshop was to share good practices with QEC colleagues across Pakistan. The session, led by Mr Ali Raza of Lahore Garrison University (LGU), was held in Lahore on Jan 28, 2023. A discussion was built around the topic of reporting against the IPE Standards, and its effectiveness. Members from eleven universities across the country attended the session and shared challenges faced and discussed the best possible solutions to accomplish desired quality goals set by their University in line with their vision and mission. After exhaustive debate on what is possible to accomplish and what is not, all representatives of the universities agreed to work together, learn from each other’s best practices which were shared during the session in order to ensure smooth completion of the IPE for the submission to HEC and for Continual Quality Improvement (CQI).
Dr Erum Monis, Deputy Director Quality Assurance, represented NUMS and shared with the audience her experience of successfully conducting 01 HEC led IPE and 05 Internal IPE visits.
Certificates of participation were awarded to the attendees of the session at the end and participants dispersed to follow HEC guidelines and strive to ensure that all Quality measures are taken to make their Institutions best models of Higher Education Learning and Research.
Pakistan’s future faces many hurdles, and its progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has been struggling. It has only been recently realized that inclusion of Higher Education sector is pivotal in achieving the SDGs. A comprehensive webinar was held at the Govt College Women University, Faisalabad on November 10, 2022 which was attended by Dy Director Quality Assurance Dr Erum Monis and Mr Aqib Shafiq, Asst Manager Jr from NUMS. Dr. Muhammad Haroon Khan, Associate Professor Health Sciences and Director ORIC, City University of Science & Information Technology Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhuwa (KPK) was the guest speaker of the webinar.
The speaker referred to the Asia and Pacific Society Policy Report and gave some background statistics on the current situation of progress against SDGs in Pakistan. Pakistan ranked 129th out of 165 countries in a recent SDG Index Ranking, with an overall score of 57.7 percent, mainly for its progress on one of the 17 goals – climate action.
Moderate improvements were shown in the goals for poverty, health and wellbeing, water and sanitation, decent work, peace and justice, and partnership, but it stagnated on zero hunger, quality education, gender equality, clean energy, innovation, sustainable cities and communities, and ‘life below water’. It actually went backwards on ‘life on land’.
In 2021, Pakistan was ranked 153th in the Global Gender Gap Index, and in 2020, it ranked 154th on the Human Development Index, with 38 percent of its population living with multidimensional poverty.
Population growth remains one of the biggest challenges for Pakistan’s development, with 60 percent of its population below the age of 25, and a fertility rate at 3.5 births per woman. This means that providing education, health and employment for a large and growing youth cohort will remain an issue for the foreseeable future.
Despite improved life expectancy, infant and maternal mortality remains high, indicating the gap in health services to the female population. Pakistan also remains one of only three countries that have not yet been able to eradicate polio.
In the education sector, literacy rates remain abysmal at 59 per cent, especially female literacy, which stands at roughly 50 per cent, compared to male literacy at 68 per cent. The quality of education and employability of school graduates is very low, and the growing young population has little to no access to quality schooling.
This brings the role of Universities in vogue and the speaker highlighted some of the major problems university faces in helping Pakistan achieve its targets in SDGs. He emphasized that it's the lack of direction that led to minimal progress in the right direction. However, now the Government through Higher Education Institutions and non-governmental organizations is making all possible efforts to push Pakistan forward using Universities for directed Research, industrial linkages and community engagement.
The Quality Enhancement Cell of Dadabhoy Institute of Higher Education (DIHE), organized an online interactive session on “Institutional Performance Evaluation (IPE) Process and Documentation” on Thursday October 27,2022. Syed Waqar-ul-Hassan, Director QEC & Regulatory Affairs, Salim Habib University, Karachi, Pakistan were invited as keynote speakers. The differences between Quality Control, Assurance and Total Quality Management were elaborated with examples by the speaker. He mentioned that Quality Control is the oldest concept that involves the detection and elimination of components or final products which are not up to the standard.
Quality Assurance, on the other hand is the before-and-during-the-event process. Quality is designed into the process in an attempt to ensure that the product or service being provided is produced as per pre-determined specification.
TQM is about creating a quality culture where the aim of every member of staff is to delight their customers and where the structure of their organization allows them to do so
He highlighted that universities needed improvement in following common weak areas to perform well in IPE, including Research Publications, Number of physical books available in library, foreign faculty and students, linkages with foreign/International Universities, utilization of VC/Rector’s emergency powers, statutory body meeting records and the other governance related issues. Best practices for organizing the students, faculty, program files/folders in the activity room for IPE were also brought under discussion and pictures shown of a well conducted IPE. Presentation ended with a productive Q&A session that answered most queries of the audience.
More than 50 QEC representatives from different Pakistani universities/institutions participated in the event. Dr. Erum Monis Deputy Director Quality Assurance attended the session on NUMS behalf. The session ended with a token of gratitude to the guest speaker and participants were given certificates of attendance.
The Quality Enhancement Cell (QEC) of Fatima Jinnah Women University invited Dr. Jahangir Khan, Director, QEC, University of Malakand Chakdara Dir (Lower), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, on October 31, 2022, for an enlightening talk and focused group discussion on how inter-university QECs can collaborate to improve their World University and Impact Rankings.
Various world rankings and their methodologies were brought under discussion. These included;
Times Higher Education World and Impact Rankings, QS World Universities Rankings, QS Asia Rankings, UI Green Metric World University Rankings by Region, Country, Category, and Campus Setting etc.
Certain common points of inclusion and exclusion in such rankings were discussed by the focal person and later strategies to improve on ranking points in certain domains were discussed.
All participants from six universities shared their excelling areas and areas of improvements like ‘International Outlook’, a requirement to increase the number of Publications and Citations. Contacting the Elsevier Database Company for inclusion of variants or/and Constituent Institutions under a university were brought in. The need and ways for coordination of universities located in Islamabad, Rawalpindi and KP area for mutual development was highlighted and identification of areas for joint working were chalked out.
The speaker highlighted that to join rankings like Green Metric, there is no need for acres of green areas owned by a university, if the university participates in various Green Movements and Plantation drives, makes structures and systems that are environment friendly, it fulfills some criteria and can start reporting under areas they are performing well in.
The meeting ended with a note to continuously share best practices and ensure all work together to make Pakistani Universities stand tall amongst the world’s higher education institutions.
Dr Erum Monis, Deputy Director Quality Assurance represented NUMS in the group. The activity was closed after distribution of certificates to participants, group photo and lunch.
Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), HEC arranged an online session to brief on the requirements for YPR 2022-23 along with expectations of QAA-HEC against each standard and to address any queries related to that. More than 255 participants were present online from national universities. Consultant QA and Deputy Director QA attended the session as NUMS representatives.
The participant were given revised targets to review prior to this meeting, and if there were any clarifications/ queries, that could be asked before/during/after the session.
The session started with welcome remarks by Mr. Nasir Shah, Director General QAA followed by presentation by QAA team on annual targets and then Questions/Answers session was conducted.
The universities were apprised on the development of QEC Calendar by the HEIs to be shared with QAA-HEC by Oct 20, 2022.
It was urged upon that QECs should ensure that all HEC required activities of Internal/External QA evaluations are to be shared with all relevant HEI authorities and concerned departments to involve all stakeholders within the university and its Constituents and Affiliates to ensure Quality Assurance.
Following core QEC activities have to be completed by the end of the fiscal year 2022-23:
The session was closed after an extensive Q &A session. Above in view, NUMS has to conduct all QEC activities well before April 30, of fiscal year.
An International Annual Medication Management Conference (AMMC-2022) was organized by Shifa Center of Professional Excellence (SCOPE) in collaboration with Department of Pharmacy Services – Shifa International Hospitals Ltd, Islamabad on Sep 22, 2022. The hybrid conference was held under the theme “Pharmacy united in action for a healthier world”. It is the theme for this year’s World Pharmacist Day celebrations by International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP).
Speakers of the conference included the following illustrious members;
Chief Guest, Dr. Manzoor H. Qazi (Chief Executive Officer, Shifa International Hospitals Ltd) welcomed the participants by appreciating the role of pharmacists in a healthcare setting (SDG-3 Good health & Well-being). The role of the female pharmacist (SDG-4, Gender Equality) was also acknowledged by the house in making their active contribution in the field of pharmacy.
Ms Sumiya Nauman, Manager Quality Assurance from National University of Medical Sciences (NUMS) also participated in the one-day conference. During the conference, the stats regarding the current situation and challenges of Medication market, its related issues, impact of medication errors on human health, constraints regarding development of national data-base of medication in Pakistan, usefulness of multidisciplinary approach in Medication management, medication safety, etc were all discussed by the national & international speakers in a well-defined manner by engaging the participants.
In the end, Chairperson/Chief of Pharmacy, SIHL & e-Shifa Home Healthcare services, Ms. Salwa Ahsan thanked all the participants and stated that "knowledge and life-long learning is the key to success and the lessons learned today should be taken to bring the improvement. Certificates of participation, awards for the best performing pharmacist and poster presenter winners were also awarded for their participation & contribution.
The office of the Ombudsperson Punjab in collaboration with UN Women, UNFPA and UK Aid conducted a one-day divisional dialogues with government institutions for seeking recommendations for enhancing implementation mechanism of "The Protection Against Harassment of Women at Workplace Act 2010" and ‘its Amendment Act 2022’ on Tuesday 16th, August 2022 at the Pearl Continental Hotel Rawalpindi.
Worthy Ombudsperson Punjab Ms. Nabila Hakim Khan’s Office along with representatives of the international NGOs; Ms Tania Durrani (GBV Technical Specialist, UNFPA, Punjab) Ms Saman Ahsan (Portfolio Manager, EVAW, Human Rights and Governance, UN Women), Mr Abdul Rasheed, Advisor to Ombudsperson Office, Punjab were the speakers of the program. The activity was organized toward achieving UN Sustainable Development goals 5, 10,16 and 17.
The Session 1 began with the introduction of participants which revealed that audience from a wide mix of government departments, including universities, Higher Secondary School, Health Sector, Commissioner Punjab and Population Department representatives.
Ms Mumtaz Mughal, Consultant UN Women, gave introduction to the dialogue and the topic of Sexual Harassment and differentiated it from harassment in general. She clarified the myths regarding harassment victims and added that there is no typical picture of a harasser.
In the second session Mr Muhammad Abbas, the Law Officer from Ombudsperson Office, Punjab, gave an overview of the Legal Provisions available in the The Protection Against Harassment of Women at Workplace Act 2010 and its Amendment Act in 2022, to facilitate common person.
He described in depth the tools and mechanisms of implementation of the law.
The tools highlighted included the Code of Conduct, Role of Inquiry Committees in Organizations/workplaces, Role of Provincial Ombudsperson (Subai Mohtasib) and other redressal mechanisms available to survivors of harassment.
In the third and final session, Recommendations for Effective Implementation of the Law across the board were invited from all participants in an interactive session. Recommendations were recorded on a form and submitted to the organizers. Honorable Ombudsperson, Punjab reassured the audience of her full support and intent to improve the existing system adding on a e-complaint mechanism, ensuring confidentiality and made the representatives of governmental organization responsible for correct and complete reporting of cases, displaying of the law and code of conduct at all work places, spread awareness to all staff, students, faculty members of the educational institutions and warned that noncompliance to the law could lead to a penalty on the violating organization.
Dr Erum Monis, Deputy Director, Quality Assurance, represented NUMS and committed to the Ombudsperson that NUMS has ‘Zero Tolerance to Harassment’ and that all efforts are being made on the direction of the worthy Vice chancellor to create and maintain a safe and potentially enabling environment for all at NUMS.
A seminar on “Accreditation for Quality Assurance and Socio-economic Development in OIC Countries” was jointly organized by COMSTECH and Pakistan National Accreditation Council (PNAC) on World Accreditation Day on Wednesday, August 3, 2022. Consultant Quality Assurance, Air Cdre Muhammad Ismail, SI (M), (Retd) represented NUMS in the event. The event was attended by participants both in-person and online from different OIC member states including participation of the scientists, policy makers and diplomats. The event was focused on the importance of accreditation and its role for socio-economic development.
Coordinator General COMSTECH, Prof. Dr. M. Iqbal Choudhary, welcomed the participants and shed light on the importance of accreditation for OIC member states.
Secretary for Ministry of Science and Technology, Mr. Ghulam Muhammad Memon was the chief guest of the event. Mr. Memon said that sustainable economic growth (SDG 8) and poverty reduction (SDG 1) can be achieved by augmenting the international trade which can only be made possible through robust accreditation, certification, quality and testing infrastructure recognized by the relevant international forums.
The President of Kazakhstan National Center of State Scientific and Technical Expertise (NSCTE), Prof. Dr. Adil Ibrayev, joined the session online where he shared about the aims, objectives and current achievements of NSCTE.
The Assistant Secretary General of Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Ambassador Askar Mussinov appreciated the well-organized event by COMSTECH and PNAC. He emphasized the importance of quality measurement for the socio-economic development of any country. It was shared that accreditation and conformity assessment play a major role in achieving technical competence, integrity and impartiality of organizations along with making them conform to international standards. International standards organizations also open ways to secure markets to provide saleable products, he added. Mr. Mussinov commended COMSTECH for its numerous capacity-building initiatives for the least developed member states to help them in acquiring knowledge and skills.
The Director General PNAC, Ms. Ismat Gul Khattak also gave a comprehensive talk on the importance of accreditation in achieving sustainable economic growth where the PNAC initiatives and achievements were also shared by her. She also offered to facilitate membership states in training and conduct of accreditation activities.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Planning Development & Special initiatives acknowledged that the socio-economic landscape of Pakistan needs tactical solutions, to address the economic problems as a top priority through identification of sustainable solutions. In order to address this issue, Pakistan's Ministry of Planning Development & Special Initiatives arranged a one-day conference on June 28, 2022 at Jinnah Convention Centre, Islamabad. The Government of Pakistan intended to have a quick round of challenges by having wider consultations from experts and best brains from every walk of life in deliberating and sharing their perspectives in preparation of National strategy to turn around the economy for sustainability.
The speakers of the conference included the following luminaries:
a. Mr Shahbaz Sharif-Prime Minister, Pakistan
b. Mr Ahsan Iqbal-Federal Minister
c. Mr Syed Zafar Ali Shah-Secretary Planning
d. Mr Dawood M. Bareach-Additional Secretary Planning
The conference was inaugurated and chaired by the Prime Minister of Pakistan with the agenda to review and plan the way forward of Pakistan's social & economic impact, via Vision 2025 based on 7 pillars pertaining to various SDGs. The focus was placed on the medium to long-term therapy required to bring Pakistan’s economy to full strength. Vision 2025 rests on seven pillars which have been identified as the key drivers of growth which will transform Pakistan into a vibrant and prosperous nation. Also, the 7 pillars possess the significance for short-term solutions or quick fixes for existing socio-economic problems.
The conference had participation from very wide range of stakeholders - including the Political Parties, Federal Ministries, Provincial Governments, National and International Private Sector Entrepreneurs, International Development and Financial Institutions, Academia, Think Tanks, Independent Experts, NGOs and other parts of Civil society of the country.
The conference addresses and focused on the public-private sector partnerships in relevance to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly in light of SDG 17 (Partnership for the goals, target 17.2.1 & 17.2.2) It was also discussed how academia can contribute towards improving socio-economic growth and sustainable solutions to boost the economy with a focused approach through identification of problems and challenges, developing policies and strategies, modelling likely futures with or without interventions, developing monitoring mechanism, reporting on interventions and enabling all this through adaptive management.
NUMS Vice Chancellor, Lt Gen Wasim Alamgir, HI (M) was invited as guest of honor along with Provost SP&D, Mr Javeed Akhter and Director ORIC, Dr Awais Siraj. Ms Sumiya Nauman, Manager Quality Assurance also participated and represented NUMS in the conference.
After inauguration, the participants of the conference were divided into seven broad thematic groups and various sub-groups;
Pillar-I: Putting People First: Developing Human and Social Capital
Pillar- II: Achieving Sustained, Indigenous and Inclusive Growth
Pillar-III: Institutional Reform and Democratic Governance
Pillar-IV: Energy, Water & Food Security
Pillar-V: Private Sector-Led Growth
Pillar-VI: Improving National Competitiveness
Pillar-VII: Modernization of Transportation Infrastructure & Greater Regional Connectivity
The outcome of the conference included the short to medium-term framework to support the country in formulating a coordinated set of policies to deal with its immediate economic crises, and to attain number of crucial goals beyond that. Moreover, for the framework to be practicable, performance indicators must be developed and a process devised for regularly monitoring progress against the set indicators.
Strategic planning generally focusses on enhancing the quality of teaching, increasing research and developing community partnership in Higher Education Institutions. Institutional Research/Quality Enhancement Cell of Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology (SZABIST), Karachi, organized an online session on the topic of “Importance of strategic planning in higher education” on Jun 7, 2022. Over a hundred participants from various Pakistani universities attended the session. Dr. Erum Monis Deputy Director Quality Assurance, and Aqib Shafiq Assistant Manager QA, attended the session and represented NUMS.
Rizwan Tanveer Malik Country Manager SCM MBS, Pakistan, visiting faculty at IU CCBIT, MAJU, IoBM, SZABIST and member of ISCEA, APICS, VCARE, CIPS was the key note speaker of the session. Presenter gave the detailed presentation on the said topic starting from basic concept of strategic planning, planning process, and its final implementation. He added that strategic planning helps the institutions in setting up the objectives, aligning resources, defining KPIs, increasing enrollment in order to hiring appropriate faculty members and to enhancing employability of the institutions’ graduates.
Webinar on the topic of “Self- Assessment the key to professional development” was organized by Quality Enhancement cell, Jinnah Sindh Medical University on June 30, 2022. Quality Assurance representatives from more than thirty Universities across the Pakistan attended the session through zoom. Dr Erum Monis Deputy Director Quality Assurance NUMS and Aqib Shafiq Assistant Manager QA attended the session on NUMS behalf.
Ms Tabassum Razi, Director, NZ Quality and & Research limited, New Zealand was the resource person of the event. Guest speaker described the role of Self-Assessment (SA) in Professional Development of teaching professionals in Higher Education Institutions. The significance of SA was highlighted and how it can help the teaching professionals to enhance students’ engagement that could lead to acquiring their maximum potential in their learning process was deliberated.
All public and private sector universities in Pakistan require a no objection certificate (NOC) from HEC Quality Assurance Division as mandatory requirement before initiating their MPhil/MS/ Equivalent and PhD programs. HEC Quality Assurance Division arranged an interactive session on “Policy for obtaining NOC for MPhil/MS and PhD Programs” with the QEC representative of universities. The session was organized on Thursday, May 19, 2022 at NAHE Hall, HEC, 09:00 am to 04:00 pm.
Dr Erum Monis, Assistant Director Quality Assurance attended the session as NUMS representative and delivered her presentation on the said topic. She added that all the MPhil/MS and PhD programs of NUMS are approved by HEC moreover, NUMS admission eligibility criteria, entry test policy, curriculum relevance, thesis review policy are according to HEC prescribed criteria.