ISLAMABAD: Minister for Education Rana Tanveer Hussain on Thursday directed Higher Education Commission (HEC) to restart ranking universities as an annual practice.

This was done every year by the commission however, it was stopped a few years back as representatives of some universities had pointed out that being the sponsor and regulator of them, the HEC should not be ranking universities.

Mr Hussain, however, said this is an important practice as it will urge universities to improve their performance.

“It is good that a few of our universities have made it to top ranked global universities but the figure is too low. I believe that ranking at national level will play a catalytic role for enhancing performance of our universities,” a press release issued by HEC, quoting the minister, stated.

It is relevant to note here that HEC stopped the practice of ranking some years ago after facing criticism over its criteria for ranking. The last few editions of ranking were mostly based on research output produced by universities. Out of the total 100 marks, 15 were for quality assurance, 30 for teaching quality, 41 for research, 10 for finance and facilities and only four for social integration and community development. However, there was no parametre to know employability – one of the major concerns for Pakistani graduates and no input was taken from students.

The HEC had also ignored some other important things such as international outlook and employers’ perception. “I personally believe the ranking process should be restarted for healthy competition amongst universities. But there is need to change the criteria, as the pervious criteria had several flaws,” said an official of HEC.

Meanwhile, during a meeting, the minister urged HEC to put more effort into increasing the quality of the country’s higher education. He also stressed on enhancing access to higher education in such a way that it does not compromise quality.

HEC’s acting chairperson Dr Shaista Sohail gave a detailed briefing to the minister on roles and responsibilities of HEC as well as challenges being faced by the higher education sector. The meeting was attended by all divisional heads of HEC.

According to a press release, the minister appreciated the commission for initiatives it had taken to develop the higher education sector but stressed that more efforts is required to implement policies to improve the quality of education in letter and spirit.

“There is no denying the fact that access to higher education must increase, but there should be a constant improvement in the quality of education and research,” the minister said, adding universities should be encouraged to generate resources other than the government’s funding. He underlined the need to strengthen universities’ capacity for resource generation as well as efficient management of these resources.

“Teachers play a key role in any education system. HEC has a system in place for their capacity building, but it needs to be further strengthened and planning should also be done to include training of college teachers. Secondly, the world is shifting towards a system where focus is being given to skills of students therefore we also need to train our teachers and university management to plan their curricula and teaching methodology in that way,” he said.

Published in Dawn, July 8th, 2022