PEC Engineering Accreditation and Qualification Equivalence Committee

In 1976, the Government of Pakistan had constituted the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC), a statutory body to regulate the engineering profession in the country. According to PEC Act 1976, the Council was assigned the functions of maintaining a register of persons qualified to practice as professional engineers and consulting engineers and recognition of their qualifications. Evidently, the purpose of recognition of engineering qualifications is to oversee the growth and quality of technical education in the country. In the past, evaluation of an engineering program was carried out through the inspectors of examinations. However, over a period of time the process of accreditation was developed in line with other developed countries. Accordingly, a PEC Engineering Accreditation and Qualification Equivalence Committee (EA&QEC) has been formed which carries out assessment of various engineering programs through a systematic and well documented process. The committee works in harmony with the Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan. The EA&QEC assesses the quality of engineering educational institutions by evaluating various constituent elements such as academic ambience, infrastructure, financial resources, physical resources, human resources, supporting systems like library resources, computational resources and avenues to mould and develop the students’ personality and learning characteristics.

It is heartening to note in this context that the PEC EA&QEC has brought out much needed Manual for Accreditation (2007), which consists of four Sections:

• The Accreditation Process: For propagation of the concept involved in accreditation to all the stakeholders of technical education.
• Criteria and Weightages: Outlining the evaluation policy as well as its methodology for the benefit of all institutions seeking accreditation of their ongoing and new programs.
• Accreditation Performa : To enable the institutions seeking accreditation of programs to provide the necessary information.
• Accreditor’s Manual: To assist the Visiting Teams in the discharge of their responsibilities.

Together, these documents represent the complete set of publications regarding the accreditation process of the EA&QEC. It is hoped that it will provide the students, parents, employers and the society at large, comprehensive information of the Quality Assurance to assist them in making a judicious choice among competing educational programs. It also fully safeguards the interests of all stake holders including that of universities being evaluated, who are provided full opportunities to submit their viewpoints even after the visitations. In order to keep pace with the changing situations, it is suggested that the Manual may be reviewed after every five years.

Engineering Programme Definition:

An engineering program is an organized educational experience that consists of a cohesive set of courses or other educational modules sequenced so that reasonable depth is obtained in the upper-level courses. A definite engineering system should be obvious in the program and, again, depth should be reached in pursuing courses in engineering stem. Moreover, the program should develop the ability to apply pertinent knowledge to the practice of engineering. An engineering program must also involve the broadening educational objectives expected in modern education.