The Senate Standing Committee on Federal Education and Professional Training was briefed on the performance of Quality Enhancement Cells (QECs) of the universities that were assessed during 2019-20, and not the overall performance of the universities.
In a statement issued on Monday, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) has clarified a news item published in a section of the press regarding HEC’s briefing to a Senate body about performance of several universities.
The measurement standards/criteria for QECs and Institutional Performance are different. The yearly progress of QECs is measured on six quantifiable standards whereas the performance of universities is reviewed against 11 defined standards.
The news regarding performance of the universities has been misinterpreted by some newspapers. The QECs are annually assessed by HEC’s Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) for their performance against the defined parameters.
The QECs play a key role in sensitizing the university administration and faculty towards the Quality Assurance issues of the university education and create awareness about the need for Self-Assessment by the programme managers in the universities. The overall performance of a Higher Education Institution (HEI) is reviewed periodically after every five years against 11 defined standards of Institutional Performance Evaluation (IPE).
