Minister asks HEC to ensure quality standards.

ISLAMABAD -- Minister for Planning Development and Special Initiatives Professor Ahsan Iqbal on Thursday urged the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to create a thorough framework for a cutting-edge performance management system for universities in order to encourage the higher education sector to play a role in the socioeconomic growth of the nation.

The minister directed HEC to establish a comprehensive framework for management system to improve faculty. He also directed the HEC to ensure quality standards in the higher education sector in the light of the seven pillars and associated key performance indicators (KPIs) for standardisation.

The pillars include quality and impact of research and innovation, university-industry linkages, technology enablement, corporate governance, community service and graduate quality and employability.

The minister made these directions while chairing a meeting to review the progress on the framework for institutional performance and audit of public sector universities.

The development of KPIs for each standard was another point made by him. He underlined that the institutional initiatives should be focused on fostering effective community service and...