The Higher Education Commission has launched a nationwide academic leadership engagement series aimed at strengthening quality assurance practices across Pakistan’s higher education institutions.
The initiative, titled “The Quality Compact on the Pakistan Precepts, Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (PSG-2023),” was formally inaugurated by the HEC’s Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) during its first regional session held at Forman Christian College University.
The inaugural Punjab session brought together approximately 100 senior university representatives, including deans, registrars, and academic administrators from 29 higher education institutions across the province.
The event began with welcome remarks by FCCU Rector Dr. Jonathan Addleton, while HEC QAA Director General Nasir Shah officially launched the engagement series.
Addressing participants, Nasir Shah emphasized the need for universities to move beyond compliance-driven approaches and adopt a greater sense of ownership in quality assurance processes. He noted that the revised PSG-2023 framework has been designed to make institutional quality assurance systems more meaningful, sustainable, and outcome-oriented.
During the session, participants were introduced to HEC’s three expository facets framework, which focuses on contextual understanding, institutional ownership, and quality maturity. The gathering also featured presentations on the PERLI Golden Thread methodology and Q-CIRCLE, a newly launched digital platform developed to facilitate real-time monitoring and evaluation of institutional quality standards.
In his concluding remarks, Shah praised participants for their active engagement and contributions, highlighting the importance of collaborative efforts in raising academic standards nationwide.
The HEC plans to continue the engagement series in other regions of the country as part of its broader strategy to establish a resilient, self-improving, and internationally competitive quality assurance ecosystem in Pakistan’s higher education sector.
