HEC is implementing the HEDP, a five-year project, to advance its top priorities in higher education, from 2019–20 to 2023–20.
The Undergraduate Education Policy (UEP) 2020, which is currently being implemented, was created by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and provides the framework for improving the quality of new programmes leading to Bachelor of Studies (BS) degrees and Associate Degrees (AD) in Affiliated Colleges and Universities.
The updated four- and two-year degrees are typical in the private sector and even at sizable public universities, but it will be challenging to implement them at all public higher education institutions (HEIs) and affiliated colleges (ACs) nationwide. The Higher Education Development in Pakistan (HEDP) project is helping HEC in this area.
HEC is implementing the HEDP, a five-year project, to advance its top priorities in higher education, from 2019–20 to 2023–20. It aims to strengthen higher education governance, enhance teaching and learning, and support research excellence in key economic sectors.
In close collaboration with HEC and the Higher Education Departments (HEDs) of provincial governments, the activity is overseen by the Post-Secondary Education Reform Unit (PERU) team of the HEDP project, which is in charge of carrying out and implementing the Undergraduate Education Policy (UEP).
It’s crucial to conduct an assessment study during the UEP rollout to determine how the programme has affected learning outcomes. The goal of the study is to evaluate how much better learning has gotten as a result of the recently implemented Undergraduate Education Policy programmes. The tool has already been tried out for this study’s purposes; it just needs to be improved upon.
The study’s conclusions will help with a crucial Project Development Objective (PDO). This study will serve as a gauge of how well teaching and learning are being done in affiliated colleges.
In order to support this study, the project has hired Mr. Salvador Malo lvarez, an international expert. Mr. Salvador is a citizen of Mexico and has a wealth of knowledge regarding Latin American higher education reform and policy.
He has served as the Director General (DG) of the Council for the Assessment and Certification of Competencies, the Mexican Centre for the Assessment of Higher Education, and the Mexican Ministry of Education.
The team created a rote learning-focused international test to evaluate cognitive learning abilities. The HEDP team received instructions on how to improve methodology assessment during a recent trip to Pakistan.
The purpose of the visit was to coordinate with key players, such as the Academic Division of HEC, NAHE, ETC, and Pakistani assessment experts, in order to gain a thorough understanding of effective undergraduate student assessment.
15 professors from various HEIs participated in a five-day workshop for key assessment officials along with five members of the ETC team. The workshop’s goal was to create assessment tools and item writing while supporting alignment with global standards.
The metacognitive platform and related self-regulation testing tools that Dr. Salvador developed over the years were shared. The proposed Learning Student Assessment Test’s (LAST) diagnostic nature allows it to evaluate students’ proficiency in a variety of areas, including communication, information management, and problem-solving.
He oversaw some practical exercises that were organised in the days that followed, during which Pakistani experts prepared the test items. The items were initially chosen from the LSAT databank.
The assessment experts examined these items for appropriateness and contextualization on three different levels: a) alignment with UEP learning outcomes and skills mentioned in the revised UEP; b) alignment with the mental level of Pakistani students; and c) alignment with the cultural and social context of Pakistan.
The workshop resulted in the creation of contextualised LSAT, an indigenous assessment tool by the university faculty and staff of ETC. The test’s overall format and the breakdown of its items into various cognitive domains regarding the evaluation of general aptitudes were developed in the first phase.
The assessment test’s items were contextualised in Pakistani educational, cultural, and social contexts in the second phase. The opportunity to prepare additional test items that were discussed in the final workshop sessions and approved for inclusion in the assessment test was also given to the participants.
As the Autumn 2023 semester gets underway in September 2023, the baseline evaluation of students enrolled under the revised UEP will be carried out. The baseline study will examine 6000 students from 102 ACs across all of the provinces, and it will be expanded to examine 10,000 students from 160 Pakistani colleges.