The universities must ensure quality education and research work at par with international standards that is only way to combat challenges facing the country, said Higher Education Commission Quality Assurance Agency Managing Director Dr Nadia Tahir.

She addressed the workshop on issues and challenges of Quality Enhancement in higher education arranged by Quality Enhancement Cell, UAF. She stressed upon the teachers to refurbish the skills of the students as the future of the country reins in their hands. She was of view that only knowledge-based economies were making headways with paced progress in every sphere of life. She added that Quality Enhancement Cells are functioning in 150 universities of the country. She said that QAA was working to safeguard public interest by enforcing good practices in education and encouraging continuous improvement in quality in higher education. She showed her concern that in the many university, statuary bodies meetings are not held for the last many months. It hampers the process of smooth functioning of the varsities. She said that universities must eye on the international rankings like Times ranking to find their space in the global recognized educational institutions. She said that they were aimed at policy making and development of practical guidelines of quality assurance in the higher degree programs. She said that they were building capacity to enhance standards of quality assurance in higher education at national level. UAF Vice Chancellor Dr. Muhammad Ashraf said that country was importing goods worth billions of rupees that is area of concern. He said that we need to strengthen our academia industry linkages and produce the tangible researches that will bring the fruitful results. He added that university was making all our efforts to ensure the quality education and research work to compete with the rest of the world. He added that the universities are meant to produce skilled manpower, tangible researches that are prerequisite for the development of the country. QEC UAF Director Dr Amir Jamil said that the QEC-UAF was capacity building of faculty and staff and the facilitating Self-Assessment Process. Director Research Dr Zahir Ahmad Zahir also spoke on the occasion.