QEC Functions

As per Higher Education Commission (HEC)

The Quality Enhancement Cell (QEC) is to be headed by a Dean reporting directly to Vice Chancellor/Rector. He is to be the correspondent with the outside bodies.
QEC is responsible for promoting public confidence that the quality and standards of the award of degrees are enhanced and safe guarded.
QEC is responsible for the review of quality standards and the quality of teaching and learning in each subject area.
QEC is responsible for the review of academic affiliations with other institutions in terms of effective management of standards and quality of programs.
QEC is responsible for defining clear and explicit standards as points of reference to the reviews to be carried out. It should also help the employees to know as to what they could expect from candidates.
QEC is responsible to develop qualifications framework by setting out the attributes and abilities that can be expected from the holder of a qualification, i.e. Bachelors, Bachelor with Honors, Master’s, M. Phil. And PhD.
QEC is responsible to develop program specifications. These are standard set of information clarifying what knowledge, understanding, skills and other attributes a student will have developed on successfully completing a specific program.
QEC is responsible to develop quality assurance processes and methods of evaluation to affirm that the quality of provision and the standard of awards are being maintained and to foster curriculum, subject and staff development, together with research and other scholarly activities.

At University of Chitral (UoCh)

At University of Chitral (UoCh) QEC has two divisions

Academic Quality Division

This division intends to improve the standard of academic quality by developing a healthy liaison with HEC and with all faculties of University of Chitral. Most of the projects which are currently executing under QEC are major part of it. These include;

Self-Assessment Reports of all Faculties
MS/PhD Program Reviews
NOC of any new MS and PhD Programs from HEC
National & international Rankings(HEC, QS, Times Higher Education)
Pakistan Qualification Register (PQR)
Provision of Roadmap of Academic Programs and their Approvals

Other than aforementioned tasks, this division is also aimed to provide assistance to all faculties of University of Chitral (UoCh) regarding their memberships and accreditations with major National and International bodies. However, the main task of accreditation lies with Faculties.
All processes which are under the domain of academia need to be formulated and validated by this division e.g. to validate the number of HEC approved research papers for promotion criteria. To formulate the unframed process (e.g. the research policy), this division will integrate with the parent department (the owner of process) and assists them in framing and approving the process.
Other projects which can be initiated under this division can be QS Ranking Application Process and Times Ranking Application Process.

Data Analytics Division

This division intends to collect and analyze the data and come up with various reports, which can be used to improve the quality of academia and services. The core projects of this division may include formulation of online surveys by integrating with main departments. These surveys may include:

Student Satisfaction Survey
Faculty Satisfaction Survey
Alumni Survey
Employer Survey
Survey of Graduating Students
Course and Teachers Evaluation Survey

Some of the results from aforementioned surveys are used in SARs, so strong integration of data analyst with all three divisions is paramount to optimize the results. Apart from this, there are many avenues where survey results give us the factual data to base our decisions e.g. students view in discounting & scholarship policy, faculty view in terms of faculty development and research etc.
As part of University's efforts toward continually improving the students, faculty, alumni and employer satisfaction on different aspects related to university, QEC has been given the responsibility to collect, analyze and report the afore-mentioned stakeholders feedback in each semester. Faculty/ School-wise online feedback system through a structured questionnaire has been maintained that affords students, faculty, alumni and employer with an opportunity to reflect upon their experience in each semester.