NAHE holds roundtable on developing linkages for faculty development

Islamabad:The National Academy of Higher Education (NAHE) has organised a series of workshops entitled, ‘Collaboration for Excellence, a Roundtable on Developing Linkages for Faculty Development in Higher Education.’

The series of these workshops is one of ongoing NAHE endeavours to facilitate capacity building of faculty in Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs), says a press release issued here on Monday.

Representatives of 17 faculty development units and departments of higher education institutions from all provinces, ICT and Gilgit-Baltistan attended the workshop. In view of the necessary COVID-19 safety measures, some participants joined the workshop in person, while the majority joined it virtually.

During the event, participants were able to debate and discuss urgent faculty development needs in Pakistan, as well as avenues for collaboration and support with NAHE in the future.

Welcoming the participants, Rector NAHE, Dr Shaheen Sardar Ali highlighted the importance of collaboration for excellence in teaching and learning in the higher education sector.

She said that it was very important to seek the views of NAHE stakeholders, the academia overall, in order to make the academy’s work more effective. She asserted that NAHE would help provide a platform for faculty development units across the country in addition to working together with them to bridge gaps. ‘The pandemic has its costs, but also provides an opportunity to improve and innovate.’

Vice Provost Aga Khan University Dr Anjum Halai said that NAHE could provide support in three key areas, including individual-level capacity building, institution-level capacity enhancement and empowering higher education institutions to self-regulate and deliver quality learning for faculty.

Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University Dr. Tayyaba Zarif emphasised the need to contextualise trainings to ensure that they fulfilled the needs of universities to address their specific needs.

Vice Chancellor, Karakoram International University Dr. Attaullah Shah pointed out the urgent need for equipping faculty with technological and teaching skills in this new context of online learning including the need to train faculty on effectively conducting assessments beyond final and midterm exams.

Chief Executive, Advance HE in UK Alison Johns shared an international context of capacity building institutions which was debated by the participants. 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.