Welcome to the Office of Institutional Quality Assessment and Effectiveness (IQAE) at FAST–NUCES, we uphold an unwavering commitment to cultivating a culture of excellence that strengthens the quality of teaching, learning, and research across all five campuses.

The IQAE plays a pivotal role in ensuring that the university’s mission is translated into measurable and sustainable outcomes. Through systematic evaluations, evidence-based assessments, stakeholder feedback, and alignment with global quality benchmarks, we strive to enhance institutional effectiveness and promote continuous improvement in all academic and administrative processes.

Our teams across campuses exemplify professionalism and dedication in executing the Program Review for Effectiveness and Enhancement (PREE), facilitating national and international accreditation processes, conducting quality audits, and strengthening capacity-building initiatives. Their efforts have reinforced FAST–NUCES’s alignment with the HEC Quality Assurance Framework (PSG–2023) and contributed to the university’s growing recognition as a leading institution of higher learning.

I extend my sincere appreciation to the Rector, Campus Directors, Deans, faculty, and staff for their continued support and collaboration. The collective commitment of our academic community remains central to our progress and accomplishments.

Moving forward, IQAE will continue to advance process automation, expand the internationalization of quality assurance practices, and uphold the highest standards of academic excellence and institutional integrity.Together, we remain dedicated to ensuring that FAST–NUCES continues to excel as a benchmark of quality in higher education.

Quality assurance is an important aspect of a university's commitment to deliver high-quality education and research services to its stakeholders. It involves a set of procedures and processes that ensure that the university's programs and services meet the required quality standards. Quality assurance is a continuous process that involves identifying areas of improvement, implementing best practices, and measuring performance against established quality benchmarks. It involves the active participation of all university personnel, students, and other stakeholders, and requires a culture of continuous improvement and accountability.

The Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) of Higher Education Commission (HEC) established Quality Enhancement Cells (QECs) in the universities of Pakistan in a phase manner. In the first three phases QECs in 45 public sector universities were established by HEC from the year 2006 till 2010. Then, HEC expanded its scope to the private sector Universities and selected 15 private sector, W category (HEC’s then ranking) universities. NUCES was in the list of the first phase (2009-2011) private sector universities. In this context, QEC at NUCES was established on June 11th, 2010.

FAST-NUCES is determined to manage quality assurance through its designed processes to bring continuous improvement in its teaching, learning and research. The Quality Enhancement Cell (QEC), now the Office of Institutional Quality Assessment and Effectiveness (IQAE), develops and implements mechanisms to ensure graduates have the skills and competencies demanded by today’s workforce. IQAE at FAST-NUCES is taking deliberate steps to bring about continual improvement in the effectiveness of the learning experience of students. In the office of IQAE, there is great emphasis on Quality Assessment and encouragement of institutional “Quality Culture”. In this regard, IQAE is responsible to ensure that all the quality related policies, standards and guidelines issued by Higher Education Commission (HEC) are being implemented in true spirit.

Support the university’s vision by adapting best practices suggested by accreditation bodies while conforming to the university policies.

Adapt existing state-of-the-art higher education quality improvement strategies, while engaging with all stakeholders.

• Enhancing the pedagogical skills of the instructors to achieve learning outcomes of the curriculum and effectively engage with students.
• Providing coaching related to the processes and procedures prescribed by accreditation bodies to academic staff.
• Communicating and coordinating with all stakeholders (students, instructors, staff, alumni, employers, subject experts, etc.) to gather feedback aimed at improving education quality.
• Formulating analytical reports extracted from stakeholder feedback (e.g., surveys related to infrastructure, teacher evaluation, alumni, employers, etc.) and providing recommendations to the statutory bodies of the university.
• Promoting automation of quality-related processes to develop an effective, viable, and sustainable quality assurance ecosystem at the university.
• Ensuring compliance with quality assurance procedures in accordance with the guidelines provided by HEC and accreditation councils.
• Providing assistance to academic departments to meet the expectations of accreditation bodies in terms of data gathering and reporting.
• Tailoring curricular and co-curricular activities to meet the requirements of ranking organizations.

The Quality Enhancement Cell (QEC) is to be headed by a Dean reporting directly to Vice Chancellor/Rector. He is to be the correspondent with the outside bodies. QEC is responsible for:

• Promoting public confidence that the quality and standards of the award of degrees are enhanced and safeguarded.
• Review of quality standards and the quality of teaching and learning in each subject area.
• Review of academic affiliations with other institutions in terms of effective management of standards and quality of programs.
• Defining clear and explicit standards as points of reference to the reviews to be carried out. It should also help the employees to know as to what they could expect from candidates.
• Developing qualifications framework by setting out the attributes and abilities that can be expected from the holder of a qualification, i.e. Master’s, M. Phil., Doctoral.
• Developing program specifications. These are standard set of information clarifying what knowledge, understanding, skills and other attributes a student will have developed on successfully completing a specific program.
• Developing quality assurance processes and methods of evaluation to affirm that the quality of provision and the standard of awards are being maintained and to foster curriculum, subject and staff development, together with research and other scholarly activities.
• Making ensure that the university’s quality assurance procedures are designed to fit in with the arrangements in place nationally for maintaining and improving the quality of Higher Education.
• Developing procedures for the following:
  • Approval of new program
  • Annual Monitoring and evaluation including program monitoring, Faculty monitoring, and student perceptions
  • Departmental review
  • Student feedback
  • Employer feedback
  • Quality assurance of Master’s, M. Phil and PhD degree programs
  • Subject review
  • Institutional assessment
  • Program specifications

Following are some of the accomplishments of the Quality Enhancement Cell at national and international levels:

• Conducted self-assessment of programs against eight criteria and thirty one standards: Thirty Five (35) self-assessment reports have been prepared, Five (5) are in pipeline; Eight (8) self-assessment cycles have been completed across all campuses of the University.
• Followed up with corrective actions on deficiencies identified by the Assessment Committees during their self-assessment visits.
• Periodic training sessions for capacity building of Program Teams are arranged in all campuses.
• Continual training of Faculty.
• Contributed in academic literature of quality in higher education, both at national and international levels.
• Standardized quality assurance activities across all campuses through implementation of QEC Annual Activities Calendar, and rigorous periodic follow up through various channels.
• Provided facilitation in conducting of accreditations for all programs e.g. PEC, NCEAC, NBEAC, etc.
• Nominated QEC Assessment Committees comprising competent resources from various reputed universities of Pakistan.
• Continuous follow up for corrective actions on deficiencies identified by Assessment Committees.
• Periodic training sessions for capacity building of Program Teams are arranged in all campuses.
• Won INQAAHE Scholarship for attending INQAAHE Biennial Conference in Quality of Higher Education in USA.
• Updated QEC information on NUCES website.
• Contributed in Ten conferences on quality in higher education; at national and international levels.
• Standardized quality assurance activities across all campuses through implementation of QEC Annual Activities Calendar and periodic follow up through monthly all campuses QEC meetings through video conferencing.
• Implemented quality assurance mechanism of MS/PhD programs as per HEC guidelines and requirements.
• Updating the Course Catalog covering all degree programs offered by the University.
• Registered in INQAAHE/APQN Database of approved consultants.
• Obtained news coverage in INQAAHE and HEC News Bulletins on regular basis.
• Contributed in SEVEN HEC national workshops on quality in higher education as resource person.
• Represented the University at Two HEC-QAA all Pakistan phase wise meetings.
• Arranged and contributed in 10 outcome based education workshops, as per accreditation council’s requirements.
• Acted as HEC resource person in several training workshops at national level to train faculty, staff, and QEC professionals of public and private sector universities.
• Acted as technical service consultant of Asian Productivity Organization (APO-Japan) to train more than 25 quality assurance professionals of Fiji Higher Education and other academic organizations in Republic of Fiji.
• Launched HEC structured questionnaires for measuring feedback from various stakeholders to enhance quality of education: The stake holders included Faculty, Alumni, Employers, Graduating Students, Current Students, and Faculty.