An exclusive meeting of the Pakistan Business Education Accreditation Council (PBEAC), Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan with Association of Management Development Institutions in Pakistan (AMDIP) was held in the UMT Boardroom to review the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) of PBEAC. The AMDIP was represented by Dr Zahoor Hasan and Dr Shaukat Ali Brah from LUMS while Dr Hasan Sohaib Murad, Dr Rashid Kausar, Dr Sarwar M Azhar, Dr Tashfeen Azhar, Dr Rauf Butt, A G Ghaffari and Mr Ijaz Yusuf, represented UMT during the meeting. Dr Ehsan Malik, Director IBA Punjab University could not attend the meeting due to his official engagements. Ahtesham Ali Raja, Program Manager PBEAC arrived from Islamabad to attend the meeting while Dr Mukhtar Ahmed and Sania Tufail joined the group in Lahore from Islamabad via video-conferencing.
Ihtesham Raja shared a presentation detailing the mission and objectives of setting up PBEAC. Many important issues were raised in the ensuing discussion as the experts gathered around the table came up with various suggestions regarding improvements in the scope and functioning of PBEAC. The meeting concluded with the consensus view that a 10-12 member working group of senior professors and academicians from top business schools across Pakistan should be mandated to review the PBEAC SOPs. The importance of the involvement of major accrediting bodies such as EQUIS and SAQS was also stressed as this would give credibility to the accreditation provided by PBEAC. Moreover, the participants of the meeting agreed that the consultative process would be improved to bring about the structural changes required to make PBEAC a strong, viable and independent accreditation body. |
