HEC forms 22-member task force to build national university rankings
The body, convened by PIEAS director Dr Ghulam Mustafa, will set indicators, weightages, data requirements and verification procedures for ranking Pakistani universities.
The Higher Education Commission has formed a 22-member National Task Force on National University Rankings to develop a national framework for assessing university performance, according to an announcement carried by the Associated Press of Pakistan on Wednesday.
Dr Ghulam Mustafa, director of the Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences in Islamabad, will convene the task force. Muhammad Ali Baig, national coordinator for national university rankings and deputy director at the HEC's Higher Education Data Repository, will act as its secretary.
The task force is to review and finalise the proposed rankings framework, drawing on internationally recognised university ranking methodologies while accounting for Pakistan's higher education landscape.
Its work covers ranking indicators and their relative weightages, assessment methodologies, data requirements, verification procedures and scoring mechanisms. The commission said the aim is a fair, transparent and evidence-based system that is credible and nationally relevant.
Members are drawn from universities and higher education regulators across the country. They include Aga Khan University, Fatima Jinnah Women University, Khyber Medical University, King Edward Medical University, Lahore University of Management Sciences, Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, National College of Arts, National University of Sciences and Technology, PIEAS, Quaid-i-Azam University, University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, University of Balochistan, University of Engineering and Technology Lahore, University of Karachi, University of Peshawar and University of the Punjab.
The Higher Education Department of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, the Punjab Higher Education Commission and the Sindh Higher Education Commission also have representatives on the body. The HEC said their inclusion gives the task force geographical, institutional and disciplinary representation.
The announcement did not give a timeline for the framework, a date for the task force's first meeting or details of how the rankings would be compiled and published.
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