Faculty Development: A Step towards Quality and Excellence

Higher Education Commission (HEC) Pakistan was established in 2002 to restructure the higher education system. Faculty development was identified as a critical element which led to emergence of the Learning Innovation Division in 2003. The objective was to encourage and support faculty and staff teams in creating a high quality, relevant and efficient learning and teaching culture. This led to intensive faculty development activities and introduction of a certificate course in university teaching. This course is first of its kind in Pakistan with an objective to acquaint the faculty members with the basic concepts and recent trends in teaching and learning in higher education. The content addressed six important areas namely curriculum, teaching skills, assessment, research, professional development and information technology skills. A number of instruments were developed for the program evaluation. This study is an evaluation of the first two courses. The immediate analysis of the results showed that this intervention was well received and perceived to be of high relevance to the university teaching as well as there has been a positive improvement from one course to another which is encouraging for the organizers. The program is now replicated at fifteen faculty development centres across Pakistan. This information will be useful for institutions/departments developing similar programs especially in developing countries.