Quality of 33 universities to be reviewed: MoHE

KABUL provided by 33 public and private universities and institutes will be reviewed this year, the relevant ministry said on Tuesday.

This comes after as Pajhwok published a report on October 06 that Tanwir Higher Education Institute in eastern Kunar province has conferred Sharia Law Degree on 120 students without having license for the faculty from the MoHE.

Hamid Obaidi, spokesman for Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE), told Pajhwok Afghan News a four-day training workshop on quality assurance accreditation and review methods for higher education institutes was held on Monday.

At the opening ceremony, Dr. Abbas Basir, acting minister of higher education, called improving the quality of the education system as the main need and focus of the ministry’s activities.

Basir said the main purpose of teaching and learning in educational institutions was to bring about gradual changes to improve the lives of the people in various sectors such as scientific, economic and social.

Basir added: “A university and a professor should ask themselves about role they play in promoting education. How many journals, articles and scientific works have been published that can be considered a source of development of constructive views?”

Commending the Quality Assurance and Accreditation Department and its efforts to improve education quality, the minister said the world was developing rapidly and they should understand the situation and plan carefully for gradual and sustainable reforms.

Dr. Mohammad Naeem Azimi, head of the quality assurance department, said the aim of the workshop was to train reviewers and familiarise them with the criteria and evaluation process.

He added the reviewers’ work was based on criteria such as infrastructure, quality and independence of universities and higher education institutes and they were being trained how to evaluate the universities scoring process.

The official said due to the outbreak of the coronavirus, review programmes at the beginning of the year had been merged with the end of the year and the review board would begin work on Saturday.

He added 33 public and private universities and institutes were scheduled to be reviewed. Of 165 institutes, 81 had not been accredited.

Kandahar, Herat, Kabul Medical Sciences, Abdul Ali Ibni Sina, Katem, Kardan and Afghan American Universities had previously obtained accreditation documents. But these universities are still being reviewed.

sa/mud

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