ISLAMABAD: As part of collaboration for academic excellence initiative of the National Academy of Higher Education (NAHE), the Academy is organizing roundtable discussion events nationally and in the provinces. The first provincial workshop/roundtable was held on Monday to identify faculty development needs in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Representatives from universities including those from the Quality Enhancement Cells in universities across the province were in attendance including Buner, Karak, Malakand, Haripur, Peshawar and former FATA.
During the event, participants were able to debate and discuss urgent faculty development needs unique to their contexts, potential collaborations between public and private sector universities and the role NAHE can play to contribute to the professional development of their faculties.
Dr. Shaheen Sardar Ali, Rector NAHE, thanked the participants for making the trip to Peshawar and taking time to participate in these challenging times. She identified both challenges and opportunities identified in the national higher education landscape as a result of COVID-19.
Universities were able to share their varying experiences of capacity building in their respective institutions. Teaching philosophy and methodology, online capability and research mentorship were among the most common problems in capacity identified by the universities. However, there was a great spirit of collaboration and a willingness to create a community of practice to improve the quality of learning available in HEIs across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Sharing of resources, identifying strengths and all that public and private institutions can offer to each other under the guidance of NAHE were possibilities discussed.
Over the next few months, members of the NAHE team will travel to Karachi, Lahore, and Sargodha to conduct additional roundtables and hopefully include representatives from all provinces and regions of Pakistan.
NAHE is established as a stand-alone, autonomous institution operating under the auspices of HEC to improve the quality of teaching, research, and governance in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) across Pakistan. This series of workshops is one of multiple ongoing NAHE endeavors to facilitate capacity building of faculty in HEIs.