ISLAMABAD: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) is committed to improve quality in the education sector and in its latest initiative has included affiliated colleges all over the country to gain this objective.
This was stated by Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed, Executive Director HEC in his welcoming remarks to directors of colleges in all provinces along with Federal Area and AJK at the HEC Secretariat on Monday.
The meeting aimed at achieving effective coordination among the provinces for this process. The role of colleges is extremely important therefore HEC is working with provincial governments to improve quality and upgrade existing standards. The HEC has already devised Minimum Quality Standards (MQS) that need to be met by colleges for improved college education. In a step forward under its Tertiary Education Support Programme the HEC is now in the process of involving affiliated colleges in training its senior staff.
So far, Gap Analysis for 102 colleges has taken place while another 300 are to be included in the much required evaluation. In the last phase 400 colleges will be included to improve quality of affiliated colleges and align their undergraduate programmes with those of affiliating universities.
Briefing the gathering Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed said that HEC’s policy to increase access rate to universities had seen improvement, as it was 2.6 per cent in 2002 and was 8 per cent at present. The 2009 National Education Policy has given target of 10 per cent by 2015, however the ongoing funding constraints were proving to be a hurdle in achieving this target.
He said despite the meagre spending of 2 per cent on entire education, the higher education sector had still responded well. Major improvements could be seen in quality standardization, research and development, digital library for students and faculty, scholarships for MS/PhD etc.
Executive Director HEC also informed that capacity building programmes were also part of the initiative to provide baseline knowledge and skills necessary for the principals/administrators of the affiliated colleges.
The meeting was attended by Ghulam Muhammad Sabir, Secretary Higher Education Balochistan, Khalid Khan, Additional Education Higher Education KPK, Dr. Naeem Khalid, Adviser Academics, Fida Hussain, DG Academics along with Director Colleges from provinces.
The participants that the intended exercise was bound to enhance the quality of education in colleges.
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