Background
The Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan established its Quality Assurance Agency to raise the standard of higher education in the country to a level comparable with international practice. As part of that initiative, every degree-awarding institution in Pakistan is required to establish a Quality Enhancement Cell (QEC) as a permanent office of the institution, and affiliated colleges are required to establish Quality Enhancement Cells for Affiliated Colleges (QECACs).
The Quality Enhancement Cell of Abbottabad University of Science & Technology was constituted under these guidelines. It is the focal office through which the University plans, monitors, evaluates and regulates the quality of its academic programs, and through which it reports on quality to the HEC and to its own statutory bodies.
What quality assurance means here
Quality assurance is not an inspection carried out on a department; it is a cycle the department runs on itself with the Directorate's support. The cycle has four stages:
- Plan — define the programme's objectives, learning outcomes and standards.
- Do — deliver the programme and collect evidence on how it performed.
- Check — assess that evidence against the criteria, through self-assessment and review.
- Act — implement the corrective actions identified, then begin the cycle again.
The Directorate's job is to make sure that cycle actually closes — that findings become actions, and that actions are verified in the next round.
Reporting structure
The Directorate is headed by a Director who reports directly to the Vice Chancellor. It works with a network of departmental focal persons nominated by each teaching department, and refers its findings to the University's Quality Assurance Committee, the Academic Council and the Board of Advanced Studies and Research as appropriate.
Terms of Reference
In line with the HEC's terms of reference for Quality Enhancement Cells, the Directorate is responsible for:
- Promoting public confidence that the quality and standards of the awards of the University are safeguarded and enhanced.
- Reviewing quality standards and the quality of teaching and learning in each subject area.
- Reviewing academic affiliations with other institutions in terms of effective management of standards and quality of programs.
- Defining clear and explicit standards as points of reference for reviews, and communicating what a graduate of each programme is expected to know and be able to do.
- Developing programme specifications for every programme offered.
- Developing quality assurance processes and methods of evaluation, and supporting curriculum and staff development.
- Ensuring that the University's quality assurance procedures are consistent with national arrangements for maintaining and improving the quality of higher education.
- Developing procedures for programme approval, annual monitoring and evaluation, departmental review, student and employer feedback, quality assurance of MS/MPhil and PhD programs, subject review, institutional assessment and the qualification framework.
- Coordinating with the Quality Assurance Agency of the HEC for guidance, training and reporting.
- Building the capacity of the Directorate's own team through HEC training programs.