Delay in varsity ranking: HEC struggles to collect authentic data

Commission finding it difficult to verify data submitted by varsities .


Riazul Haq March 06, 2015
The HEC Chairperson, Dr Mukhtar Ahmad said that a department was devoted to verifying data from every single university to ensure transparency.

ISLAMABAD: Almost two years after the higher education regulatory body released its first university rankings that drew wide criticism; the commission is grappling to collect authentic data to issue the latest list.

The delay on part of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) is apparently an effort to avoid attracting any controversy this time around by issuing a list in ‘haste’ as well as to assert the importance of its role, following the establishment of provincial higher education commissions in Sindh and Punjab.

The HEC released university rankings for the year 2012 on July 5, 2013, which was the commission’s first ever such effort. The rankings were criticised by several universities for being ‘unfair’ and the commission was blamed for leaving several lacunas in the process.

The ranking criteria, was based on several factors including adherence to quality assurance in the appointment of faculty members, faculty development, student intake, and quality of MS, MPhil and PhD programmes.

The HEC, at the time, had also announced to outsource the process to a private body for ensuring independent and transparent results, in an effort to fend off criticism and allegations of bias.

According to reliable sources at the HEC, high-ranking officials at the quality assurance section of the commission had unfairly given favourable ranking to some universities.

Lahore School of Economics (LSE) Rector Dr Shahid Amjad Chaudhry, back then had issued a statement requesting the HEC to “immediately withdraw the incorrect and misleading rankings.”

The alleged connivance between the HEC officials and some of the universities could be gauged from the fact that in its rankings, University of Faisalabad, Faisalabad topped in the general-small category, while Beaconhouse National University, Lahore was ranked second.

The two institutes were, however, placed 59th and 98th, respectively, by another HEC report on research publications for the period 2009-2011, which also weighs in on the ranking criterion.

As the HEC allocates 36 points out of 100 for research, the two universities being placed in the top five in 2013, raises questions regarding the credibility of the rankings.

The HEC invited varsities in August 2014 to assist them in revising the criteria for establishing the rankings.

An official privy to the process involving establishing the latest rankings said that the commission was facing problem in verifying the data given to them by the universities.

“Many universities are sharing exaggerated data, while many have shared dubious figures regarding HEC-approved PhD faculty and research publications etc,” he remarked.

The HEC Chairperson, Dr Mukhtar Ahmad said that a department was devoted to verifying data from every single university to ensure transparency.

“I do not want to earn a bad name [for the HEC] by moving with [issuing] the rankings in haste,” he contended, without giving any date for issuing the rankings.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 6th, 2015.

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