Establishment of QEC-UET Lahore

The Quality Enhancement Cell (QEC) at the University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Lahore is a dedicated department established to ensure and elevate the quality of higher education within the institution. Founded in September 2005, it was one of the first ten QECs set up in public sector universities in Pakistan under the initiative of the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) of the Higher Education Commission (HEC). The primary mission of the QEC is to align UET Lahore’s academic standards with national and international benchmarks, fostering a culture of continuous improvement in teaching, learning, and research.

The QEC operates under the leadership of a Director, who reports directly to the Vice-Chancellor, ensuring high-level oversight and integration with the university’s strategic goals. It is housed in a fully equipped office within a modern university building, reflecting its significance to the institution. The cell focuses on implementing the HEC’s Quality Assurance Framework, which includes developing and managing a university-wide quality framework tailored to UET Lahore’s needs. This involves policies, processes, and evaluations aimed at maintaining high academic standards and enhancing institutional effectiveness.

Vision Statement

To uphold the highest standards of academic excellence and compliance, fostering a culture of continuous improvement in education, research, and institutional development.

Mission Statement

To ensure and enhance the quality of academic programs and institutional processes at UET Lahore through effective self-assessment, stakeholder engagement, and adherence to national and international standards, thereby promoting excellence in teaching, research, and governance.

Functions of Quality Enhancement Cell

Quality Enhancement Cells (QECs), established in HEC recognized universities (both private and public sector) across the Country by Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC), are envisioned to be strategic organs facilitating Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to fulfill their mission and subsequent goals. QECs have a prime responsibility of institutionalization of quality in HEIs as well as in their constituent units and affiliated colleges. The Cells are vested with responsibility to develop a strong institutional quality culture and strengthen systems that HEIs use to guarantee the quality of student learning experience and other scholarly activities, thereby promoting public confidence.

QECs have a mandate within HEIs to implement the Quality Assurance Framework of QAA for higher education in Pakistan not as an end in itself but as a means of enabling the institutions of higher learning to effectively fulfill the ever-evolving needs of society. Within the context of external reference points like HEC guidelines, etc., they play a central role in the development and delivery of interlinked internal and external quality assurance.

One of the prime responsibilities of the Cells is implementing the internal quality assurance processes both at institutional and Programme levels covering all areas of university’s operations with active involvement of management, faculty, staff and students. They also have a key responsibility of facilitating institutions to prepare for and go through external quality assurance and coordinate with external quality assurance bodies including HEC, QAA & accreditation councils. QECs have a duty to support universities to strengthen internal quality assurance processes for having a successful external review.

As an addition to the existing QEC set-ups, dedicated QECAC units are fully integrated in the structure of QECs to streamline and carry out activities aimed at improving the quality of education delivered by affiliated colleges.

The head of QEC generally titled as ‘Director QEC’ (equivalent to the status of Dean) directly reports to the head of institution (Vice Chancellor/Rector or equivalent). The position has QA within its remit.

Responsibilities of Quality Enhancement Cell (QEC)

  • Providing leadership to enhance the effectiveness of institution in realizing its mission & goals and compliance with external quality assurance standards.
  • Managing and Implementing QA Framework of QAA-HEC for higher education in Pakistan at HEI in letter and spirit affirming that high academic standards are secured.
  • Developing and university-wide implementing the ‘Quality Framework’ of university that is compatible with HE arrangements in place nationally and consisting of policies, processes and guidance enabling universities to contextualize their approach to the quality assurance framework and manage the outcomes of these processes.
  • Evaluating institutional effectiveness against the standards rather than compliance with the standards employing both content-oriented ‘peer review’ system and process-based audit and reviewing academic standards, quality of provision and the system HEIs use to guarantee that quality; thus, assuring that the standard of academic awards are upheld and enhanced.
  • Facilitating external review of HEI and academic programmes.
  • Enabling the accreditation process and ensuring accreditation of academic programmes from respective accreditation councils as per given plans.
  • Performing audit of the institution and departments to determine whether an institution of higher education conforms to standards and the quality parameters prescribed by the QAA-HEC.
  • Performing audit of academic programmes to determine whether the programmes of study set and maintain the standards at the desired level.
  • Developing programme to audit curriculum, in collaboration with Director Academics (or equivalent), to check the relevance and rigor of course/programme offerings with sufficient attention to the contents and achieved learning outcomes of the academic programmes.
  • Ensuring that academic programmes are developed considering vision, mission & goals of HEI in alignment with National Qualification Framework of Pakistan and they comply with HEC policies & global standards of teaching in order to enable graduates to have appropriate global employment opportunities or become successful entrepreneurs.
  • Development of program specifications specifying specifics of knowledge, skills and behavioral competencies a student will have developed / be able to demonstrate on successful completion of the degree programmes.
  • Developing repository of university data that can be used for delivery of information to various stakeholders including HEC, QAA and accreditation councils.
  • Capacity development of faculty and staff (in HEIs as well as in their constituent units and affiliated colleges) on quality assurance.
  • Arranging conference/seminars/summits on topics relating to quality assurance.
  • Developing and implementing procedures ensuring involvement of faculty, staff and students in quality assurance activities and its outcomes implanting QA into the academic component of university.
  • Development and implementation of academic honor code.
  • Having oversight of university’s approach to assuring the integrity in internal functioning and transparency in external dealings.
  • Having an operations oversight of university activities and academic policies for working towards achieving institutional mission & goals and whistle blowing for senior management to take timely preventive and / or corrective measures.
  • Dissemination of QA knowledge, information and good practices across the institution amongst all stakeholders.
  • Staying abreast of external information related to quality assurance and initiating & coordinating apt and appropriate actions.
  • Instilling indicators of various global rankings like THE, QS, etc., into the fabric of university operations; submission of ranking data to ranking agencies.
  • Steering other QEC affairs like data submission to HEC, PHEC etc., management of Turnitin accounts, Pakistan Qualification Register, NOCs from HEC, degree attestation issues, preparation of program files, student files, faculty files, etc.
  • Being a member of university statutory bodies, providing expert input and guidance on academic quality related matters.
  • Developing and maintaining QEC webpage at university website to keep public and interested parties abreast of latest information.
  • Monitoring and Evaluation of academic partnerships with other institutions to ensure effective management of standards and quality of education provision.
  • Steering and supervision of QEC sub-offices/focal persons at sub-campuses, affiliated colleges, etc.
  • Ensure the active participation of representatives of sub-campuses, affiliated colleges, etc., in meetings of university’s statutory bodies.

Responsibilities of Quality Enhancement Cell (QEC) of Affiliated College

  • Introduce, implement & strengthen quality assurance framework of QAA-HEC in affiliated colleges (ACs), setting targets for each affiliated colleges as per baselines targets provided by QAA-HEC.
  • Develop and implement mechanisms for continuous quality improvement (CQI) of education delivered at affiliated colleges (ACs) and ratifying the performance assessment of ACs as per QAA targets and / or additional targets set by QECACs; periodic progress review meetings to assess the performances.
  • Improve / Strengthen the mechanisms of assessments (examinations/ assignments / quizzes / projects, etc.)
  • Review the academic affiliations of colleges and report the compliance status of ACs against university affiliation criteria/guidelines on a cyclical basis.
  • Conduct of feedback surveys, analysis of feedback surveys and closing loop activities.
  • Facilitate the implementation of HEC undergraduate education policies at ACs.
  • Coordinate with colleges and accreditation councils for timely accreditation of programmes from respective councils.
  • Develop capacity of faculty, staff and focal persons at each AC.
  • Through the Director QEC, coordinate and provide information to regulatory bodies like HEC, etc.
  • Steer other QECACs affairs like sharing important updates with colleges, data submission, management of Turnitin accounts, implementation of HEC policies like plagiarism policy etc., Pakistan Qualification Register, degree attestation issues, preparation of program files, student files, faculty files, etc.
  • Any other task assigned by the competent authorities of university.