ISLAMABAD
The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has invited all public and private institutions of higher education in the country to provide feedback on the revised criteria for the ranking of universities.
The criteria have been revised by a committee of experts to address concerns expressed by universities about the ranking criteria and ranking process employed in the last two rankings conducted by the HEC. Due consideration has been given in the revised criteria to the comments and recommendations received from the universities from the earlier rankings.
The HEC has also conducted a thorough review of the ranking process to enhance transparency in the future rankings of universities. The ranking provides one of the mechanisms for the assessment of quality of teaching and research in the country and ensure the enhancement of quality of higher education through healthy competition among the universities. The ranking criteria have been developed keeping in view the needs of higher education in Pakistan and are based on several factors including adherence to quality assurance criteria in the appointment of faculty members, faculty development, student intake, quality of MS/MPhil and PhD programmes, graduates produced, implementation of plagiarism policy, research projects, research publications, quality of research journals, national and international awards, conferences organised and academia-industry linkages.
Chairman HEC Dr Mukhtar Ahmed has stressed that the criteria for next ranking will be finalised based on feedback received from the universities. “Feedback from universities is important to ensure that ranking is more meaningful and useful for all the stakeholders. It should truly reflect the quality of teaching and research in Pakistan’s institutions of higher learning,” said the chairman.