HEC’s Quality Assurance Agency Brings Academic Leadership and HEC Divisions Together to Strengthen Quality Assurance Across DAIs

Islamabad/Peshawar, January 1, 2026: Marking a significant step forward in Pakistan’s higher education reform agenda, the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) of the Higher Education Commission (HEC), Pakistan successfully concluded a regional engagement with all Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Degree Awarding Institutions (DAIs) from both public and private sectors, under its nationwide “Quality Excellence and Leadership Engagement” initiative.

The initiative aims to institutionalize a sustainable quality culture across DAIs through leadership ownership, continuous improvement, and institutional maturity. Participants across all sessions appreciated QAA’s consistent efforts in steering the sector towards a renewed quality assurance paradigm and expressed confidence in the newly introduced Quality Assurance (QA) and Internal Quality Assurance (IQA) Frameworks, which are expected to significantly enhance academic standards, governance, and student-centered outcomes.

For the first time, a diverse group of HEC Divisions—Academics, Research & Innovation Development (R&ID), Planning & Development (P&D), and Accreditation and Attestation (A&A)—responsible for policy matters, jointly engaged with DAIs on a single platform. This collaborative approach significantly enhanced policy coherence, clarity, and alignment across the higher education sector.

The audience highly appreciated this timely initiative, recognizing it as a critical step to ensure coordinated guidance, streamlined implementation, and a unified understanding of quality assurance reforms. Institutions actively engaged in interactive discussions, shared progress against QA targets, and discussed implementation challenges and best practices.

Strong peer learning and collaborative engagement were observed among DAIs—particularly at the regional level—reflecting a positive shift towards embedding a sustainable quality culture within institutional systems and processes.

The closing ceremony was graced by Prof. Dr. Usman Ghani, Rector, Institute of Management Sciences (IM Sciences), Peshawar as the chief guest. In his address, Dr. Ghani appreciated the efforts of Quality Assurance Agency, HEC, for effectively engaging academic leadership along with Heads and Directors of Quality Enhancement Cells (QECs) in advancing quality assurance reforms across higher education institutions. He emphasized the importance of collective leadership and institutional ownership in achieving meaningful and sustainable quality enhancement.

He also commended CECOS University, Peshawar, for hosting and organizing such an important national level engagement and for providing exemplary institutional support that contributed to the success of the event. In concluding remarks, the leadership expressed strong confidence in QAA’s ongoing efforts to transform quality assurance practices and elevate overall standard of higher education in Pakistan through sustained collaboration and institutional ownership.