Fourth three-days training workshop was organized by the National Agriculture Education Accreditation Council (NAEAC) for its program evaluators (PEs) in collaboration with Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), Higher Education Commission, Islamabad from September 28-30, 2017 at Hotel Margala, Islamabad. Resource person for the training workshop was Prof. Dr. Jianxin Zhang, a very senior quality assurance professional with considerable international experience of institutional and program review, presently President of Asia-Pacific Quality Network (APQN).
Program Evaluators representation was based on institutional and provincial quota. Thirty (30) participants for the workshop were identified and nominated for the training workshop including meritorious professors, deans, directors, and a few associates. Fifty percent participants were from Punjab and the rest from Sindh, Khuber-Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and AJK. This is the fourth training workshop in the series, earlier three such workshops were conducted in 2011, 2012 and 2015 with total number of 90 program evaluators/experts. The main objectives of the fourth training workshop were: to improve the relevant skills of PEs in undertaking external evaluation and accreditation process of degree programs and to understand participatory SWOT analysis and NAEAC best practices of external peer review process.
The inaugural session of the workshop was chaired by Prof. Dr. Arshad Ali, Executive Director, HEC whereas the concluding session was presided by Prof. Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed, Chairman, HEC. Resource Person prepared the course contents of the training workshop thoroughly and in a meticulous manner. She appreciated the interest and commitment of the participants in the workshop deliberations. Participants of the workshop highly valued the training material and its delivery by the resource person. They expressed their full satisfaction on the teaching-learning process and desired that such workshops may be regularly organized for orientation and updating the knowledge and skills of the P.Es.
Chairman, HEC in his concluding remarks appreciated and acknowledged the hard work of the resource person. He congratulated the NAEAC for conducting the training workshop successfully and provided the opportunity to the program evaluators from different institutions of Pakistan. He was of the view that this workshop will enable program evaluators to learn the quality assurance mechanism involved in the external review process of agriculture degree programs.
(Written by Raja Mehtab Yasin, Deputy Director, Admin & Finance)
