Strength and quality of faculty is one of the major factors of evaluation criteria for an academic program, says Dr. Ishtiaq A. Rajwana, Chairperson of NAEAC
National Agriculture Education Accreditation Council (NAEAC) chairperson, Prof. Dr. Ishtiaq A. Rajwana called upon higher education institutions to dedicate the 8th semester for full fledge internship. There should not be a short course, no parallel internship or classwork in the last semester. Ideally, internships should be paid and to find such internships should be the responsibility of the head of the departments and career placement officers. The universities that adopted this practice have had fruitful results.
He was addressing the 'NAEAC Quality Assurance and Accreditation Awareness Seminar' organized by the Department of Environmental Sciences, Sindh Madressatul Islam University (SMIU).
While addressing the importance of curricula he said that the environmental sciences discipline might be on the radar of the National Curriculum Council of Pakistan in 2022. New and national curricula of Environmental sciences were going to emerge under academic pision.
He stated, “reputable organizations present themselves and ask the professional councils for third party evaluation voluntarily.” He said that before providing accreditation, they tried to organize awareness seminars, in which their experts guided the institutions so that they could complete the requirements to get accreditation.
“To prevent parents and students from any fraud we try to differentiate between legitimate and non-legitimate educational institutions so that children get rid of defaulter institutions,” said Dr. Rajwana.
The Vice chancellor, SMIU, Prof. Dr. Mujeebuddin Sahrai Memon concluded the seminar and said that usually people come and visit the institutions and concentrate on weaknesses and shortcomings but this time, he said, they received positive attitude.
“I felt quite comfortable while going through the parameters of accreditation council, and simultaneously, I was analyzing the university that fulfills the requirements,” said Dr. Sahrai, adding that he was hoping that in future visits of NAEAC they would do their best to receive W or X category.
He appreciated the inception of HEC and said the role and support of HEC shall be appreciated. Institutions like HEC were a blessing for us. If this institution did not exist, all the universities would be scattered.
On this occasion, Dr. Imran Chhajro, HoD of Environmental sciences gave a presentation on SMIU. Deans, Director ORIC, faculty, and students of the Department of Environmental Sciences were also present.