The HEC’s QAA was tasked with launching a number of initiatives to protect minimum standards of quality among higher education institutions (HEls) throughout the nation.
Regular quality assurance review of universities are carried out by the Higher Education Commission (HEC), and to date, 133 universities nationwide have been examined against the standards set by HEC.
Official sources claim that HEC was given the authority to evaluate institutions’ performance through its ordinance. The HEC’s Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) was tasked with launching a number of initiatives to protect minimum standards of quality among higher education institutions (HEls) throughout the nation.
One of the main pillars of QAA-HEC Pakistan was Institutional Performance Evaluation (IPE), which served to protect standards, offer a venue for improvement, and foster a culture of quality throughout Pakistan’s higher education system.
IPE was a comprehensive evaluation programme that offered a venue for HEI-wide reviews. It was a peer review process designed to raise the standard of the institution as a whole. IPE consists of eleven (11) standards, and these standards are used to assess the efficiency of teaching and learning as well as institutional development in general.
The standards cover the following areas: planning and evaluating the mission statement and goals; organisational and governance; integrity; faculty; students; institutional resources; academic programmes and curricula; public disclosure and transparency; assessment and quality assurance; and student support services.
IPE reviews were conducted every five years to assess how well the institution performed in relation to the aforementioned standards.
The specific processes and frequency of quality assurance review may vary depending on the university and the specific standards that it is being evaluated against. Some universities may also undergo quality assurance review for specific programs or departments, rather than for the institution as a whole.
The goal of quality assurance review is to identify areas where the university can improve and to help ensure that it is meeting the needs of its students and other stakeholders. This can be done through a variety of mechanisms, such as accreditation, peer review, and external evaluations.