EVALUATION OF QUALITY ASSURANCE SCHEME FOR HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS OF KARACHI (PAKISTAN) BY THE HEC

Aamir AYAZ*, Muhammad Yousuf SHARJEEL**

Beginning of the twenty-first century has seen the Quality Assurance in Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) turn into a frequent topic of discourse on an international scale as well as on a national level. With the oversight of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) the HEIs of Pakistan to have strived to concentrate their endeavours towards the assurance of quality in the universities of Pakistan. Keeping in view the guidelines of the Quality Assurance Committee (QAC) and Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) the HEC began setting up Quality Enhancement Cells (QECs) in the public universities nationwide. These steps, among others, taken by the Commission explicitly suggest that they have resolved to develop a good system of quality assurance in the higher education institutions across Pakistan. The wider scope of the study is to examine and analyse the outcomes of Quality Assurance Scheme (QAS) while taking into account the development of QECs to increase the standard of higher education in the country’s HEIs. The more definite focus of the research, however, is to assess the practices of assuring quality in the HEIs of the public and private sector and to see if there are any appreciable differences in the two sectors concerning quality assurance. The study through the Survey Research has covered three HEIs from the private sector and three HEIs from the government sector. Moreover, Feedback Forms have been used as the research instrument. Finally, the accumulated data has been assessed quantitatively.

Keywords: Quality Assurance, Higher education, Accountability