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Minutes of Council Meetings

Minutes of the Fourth Meeting of National Agriculture Education Accreditation Council

(23 January, 2010)


The fourth meeting of the National Agriculture Education Accreditation Council (NAEAC) was held on January 23, 2010 at 10:30 AM in the Mural Hall of Higher Education Commission (HEC), Sector H-9, Islamabad. The meeting was chaired by Dr. M. E. Tusneem, Chairman, NAEAC and attended by 13 Members of the Council out of 20. (Annex-I).

2. After recitation from the Holy Quran, the Chair welcomed the Council members to the meeting and thanked them for their guidance and cooperation. The Chairman informed the meeting that the Council has been moving forward steadily and progressively since it started its operation in September, 2007. In a short span of a little more than 2 years, its evaluation and accreditation activities increased from two degree programs in 2007-08 to eight in 2008-09 at the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad; NWFP Agricultural University, Peshawar and PMAS Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi. During the evaluation process, every effort was made to demonstrate high standard of quality, collegiality and professionalism. During 2009-10, it is planned to carryout on-site visits for accreditation of 16 degree programs covering eight disciplines at the Faculty of Crop and Food Sciences at PMAS AAU, Rawalpindi; UAF, Faisalabad; and NWFP AU, Peshawar for reflecting an increase of 100% over FY 2008-09. Out of planned on-site visits of 16 degree programs of which four degree programs (two disciplines) of PMAS AAU, Rawalpindi have already been accomplished as of December, 2009.

3. Six awareness seminars were organized by the Council in 2009-10, it is planned to carry-out six awareness seminars at various campuses including Agriculture College of Multan, Bahawalpur and D.G. Khan, and Agriculture Faculties and at Agriculture Department of general Universities.

The other notable activities include the Database development and updating of Agriculture Education Institutions, E-mail Surveys of all seventeen (17) Agriculture Institutions in Pakistan.

4. The Chair appreciated the participation of the representative of Agro Industries and encouraged them to make meaningful contribution for strengthening and promotion of accreditation activities of the Council. He also acknowledged with thanks the financial and intellectual support of HEC and thanked MD (QAA) and Program Coordinator (QAA) for their continuous guidance and support to the NAEAC Secretariat in the conduct of Accreditation process.

5. Secretary of the National Agriculture Education Accreditation Council (NAEAC) presented the agenda to the Council members. A summary of the decisions taken in the meeting is given below.

Item #I: Confirmation of the Minutes of the Third Meeting of National Agriculture Education Accreditation Council (NAEAC)

6. The minutes of the third meeting of the National Agriculture Education Accreditation Council (NAEAC) held in January 12, 2009 were finalized based on the comments received. The same were placed before the Council for their approval.

The Council approved the minutes of its 3rd meeting held on January 12, 2009 at Mural Hall of HEC, Islamabad.

Item# II: Consideration and Approval of the Reports of Accreditation Inspection Committees (AICs)

7. The Accreditation Inspection Committees of NAEAC conducted external audit visits of the degree programs of Entomology and Horticulture disciplines of PMAS, AAU, Rawalpindi; degree programs of Institute of Horticultural Sciences (IHS) of University of Agriculture, Faisalabad; and degree programs of department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, NWFP Agricultural University, Peshawar. The AICs submitted their recommendations for accreditation to chairman of the Council. Salient features of the AICs reports were submitted for the consideration/approval of the Council.

The Council reviewed the reports in detail with focus on SWOT Analysis and Recommendations of the AICs. The Council considered the AIC reports and made following general observations for future reference.

i. There is need for more specificity and quantification of various criteria and parameters in the evaluation reports.

ii. The assessment forms may be further fine tuned to include weight-age and grading of each criterion, so as to quantify all the qualitative parameters.

iii. Accreditation categories (W, X, Y, Z) along with their definition are reviewed to make them more specific.

The Council Members viewed that the attainment of excellence is a continuous process. Accreditation procedures may be further improved and fine tuned to make them fair, transparent, and self explanatory.

The Council approved the AIC reports for the degree programs of the: Disciplines of Entomology and Horticulture, PMAS AAU, Rawalpindi, Institute of Horticultural Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad and the Degree Programs of PBG discipline of NWFP Agricultural University, Peshawar.

Item# III: Approval of Annual Report for FY 2008-09

8. Compilation of Annual Report is a mandatory activity of the Council. The Second Annual Report (2008-09) was submitted to Honorable Members of the Council for their review and approval.

The Council approved the Annual Report for 2008-09 and commended the efforts of the NAEAC Secretariat for preparing an excellent and presentable report despite the limited resources.

Item# IV: Consideration and Approval of Annual Work Plan for 2009-10

9. Evaluation and accreditation of degree programs is a single most important activity of the Council. The other activities include in the Annual Work Plan, Awareness Seminars/Workshops, Database Development, Training workshops for evaluators, Council Meetings, updating of NAEAC website, Publicity and Advertisement. The detailed work plan prepared in line with the available resources is placed before the Council members for consideration and approval.

The Council members approved the Action Plan and gave suggestions to make NAEAC Website more user friendly and suggested that Secretariat should post all the data/material including approved AIC reports, etc for information of the Council Members and other stakeholders.

Item# V: Consideration and Approval of NAEAC Budget Break-up for FY 2009-2010 and Proposed Budget for FY 2010-11.

10. Secretary NAEAC presented the budget for 2009-100 as well as proposed budget for FY 2010-11 for the consideration and approval of the Council. The members were informed that Higher Education Commission has committed to provide an amount of Rs. 2.00 million as financial grant to each Accreditation Council for a period of four years. Keeping in view the past experience, the Council has prepared its budget for financial year 2009-2010. Accreditation fee to the tune of Rs.0.300 million is also expected from three Agricultural Faculties of UAF, PMAS AAU, Rawalpindi and NWFP Agricultural University, Peshawar in FY 2010-11. These receivables have also been reflected in the proposed budget breakup for FY 2010-11.

11. It was noted that the Secretariat has to implement, under the overall guidance of Council; important functions of accreditation of the degree programs that involves substantial financial implications. Funds are also required for the training of evaluators, conduct of awareness seminars and convening of Council meetings, etc. The present level of funding was grossly inadequate to meet the targets envisaged by Quality Assurance Agency of HEC. In order to complete one round of accreditation of the degree programs (170) within a span of five years, substantial increase in funding is required to meet the accreditation costs. Keeping in view the fact that tution fees in the public sector institutions is always nominal resulting in the receipt of moderate accreditation fee. Thus, expected accreditation fee receipts from public sector institutions will not be adequate to meet the expenditures of accreditation at-least during the first round of this process.

After deliberations on the issue, the Council adopted resolution for HEC highlighting the need of additional funding to the level of Rs. 5 million per annum to NAEAC for the next 3 years to allow expeditious completion of all degree programs at all agricultural institutions. The resolution will be submitted to Higher Education Commission (HEC) along-with the 3 year Work Program and Budget estimates.

Item# VI: Strengthening of Institutional Database (Email Survey)

12. Database development and updating is also a mandatory and a continuing activity. An E-mail survey was initiated and a two page questionnaire sent to all the Agricultural Institutions (17) in Pakistan. Completed questionnaires have been received and the data is being processed for sharing and posting on the website. The information generated shall be posted on NAEAC website i.e. www.naeac.org as well as e-mailed to all seventeen (17) Agriculture Institutions in Pakistan. The Council members appreciated the job done by the NAEAC Secretariat and advised to accomplish the task.

Item# VII: Renewal of Annual Service Contract of NAEAC Staff

13. As per clause-5 of the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for Accreditation Councils of HEC, the Chairman NAEAC is authorized to renew the service contract of the incumbents on the basis of satisfactory performance. Hence, annual service contract of the NAEAC staff was renewed in September to enable the staff to draw salary for Eid-ul-Fitr. Concurrence of the National Agriculture Education Accreditation Council (NAEAC) members is solicited for the one year contractual engagement of the NAEAC staff with effect from September, 2009.

The Council Members endorsed the contractual appointment of NAEAC Staff for one year.

Item# VIII: Amendment in the Bye-laws of NAEAC regarding four meetings of the Council in a year

14. As per clause-7 of the bye-laws of the NAEAC, the Council is obliged to convene at least four meetings in a year on such day and time as the Chairperson may determine. It is pertinent to mention that there are 22 members in the Council having representation of experts from Academia, research institutions, leading industries and R&D in public and private sectors. Seven out of 22 members are from Sindh and Baluchistan who travel by Air. Only the TA/DA expense of these seven members is almost Rupees One Hundred Fifty Thousand (Rs.150, 000) to attend one Council meeting and the overall expenditure for one meeting of the Council is about Rs.200, 000/- against total annual budget of the Council is Rs.2.00 million. It is thus, evident that holding four meetings in a year is not possible given the financial resources available.

15. Being cognizant of the fact that Council meetings involve heavy financial implications and limited budgetary resources, the Council Members agreed to convene only two Council meetings in a calendar year and increase the volume of business of the Council.

It was agreed to submit the case to HEC being the controlling authority for the modifications in the Council bye-laws regarding convening of only two instead of four Council meetings in a year for approval.

Item # IX: Revision of Pay-Package of NAEAC Staff

16. The existing pay-package was offered during financial year 2006-2007 but implemented in 2007-08 with the recruitment of NAEAC core staff hired on yearly contract basis. This financial year (2009-10), is the third year of the engagement of staff; however, there has been no increase in the salary/pay package since 2007-08. Government of Pakistan, Finance Division (Regulations Wing) vide Office Memorandum No.F-4(9)R-3/2008-499, dated August 12, 2008 has made substantial upward revision in the pay package (equivalent to various Basic Pay Scales) besides 5% annual increment for the contract employees paid out of PSDP projects.

17. During these three years, the Government of Pakistan has increased 45 percent of pay of all employees on running basis. Inflation rate has increased from 6 percent to more than 20 percent, an increase of 202 percent. Consumer price index (CPI) also reflects that there has been manifold increase in the cost of living. There is a genuine need of relief in the form of increase in the salary/pay-package of the NAEAC Staff as admissible to the other regular and Contract employees of the Govt. over the last three years. The issue of increase in the salary of the NAEAC staff was discussed in detail. It was observed that there has been no change in the pay package/salary of the NAEAC employees since 2007-08. Meanwhile, according to official Consumer Price Index (CPI), the cost of living has increased by 50 percent.

The Council members considered that the issue of the salary raise is very genuine and may be considered sympathetically. Hence, the Council decided to increase the salary by 10% with effect from 1st January, 2010 and with 5% increase per annum thereafter commencing from each fiscal year.

Any other Agenda Item:

i. Budget (Air Travel Cost):

Some Council members pointed out that NAEAC has seized to refund the Air travel charges of the members for attending Council Meetings. They were of the view that their Parent department /institution may sometimes not in a position to sponsor the Air travel cost. The Chair informed that due to prohibiting expenditure on the travel cost of the Council members, the Council is unable to pay the Air travel within its very meager budget. It was decided in the 3rd Council meeting that in future, Council shall pay only local travel, boarding/lodging and accommodation charges to the members. However, Council may consider the request of a member for sponsoring the Air travel to attend NAEAC meetings only on case to case basis.

ii. Generation of Resources for NAEAC:

Almost all the Council members realized that Council is functioning with very limited resources and has demonstrated excellent performance so far. With a view, to achieve its targets of completing one round of accreditation of 170 degree programs, it has to fast track its activities accomplish the task within 2-3 years. Accreditation activities involve financial implications; hence there is a need to increase the budget allocations of the Council to augment the accreditation activities. It was therefore, proposed that:

i. There is a need to create a head to collect the nominal fee from all the graduate and under-graduate students on account of accreditation charges during the course of study. In this way, the Institution can collect handsome amount and the same can be transferred to the Council for its activities besides the normal accreditation fee charges of each faculty/discipline.

ii. Higher Education Commission should write to all the Agriculture Institutions to include budgetary provisions for accreditation fee under intimation to HEC and pay the accreditation fee in advance to the Council before the on-site visit of the Accreditation Inspection Committee (AIC).

iii. Like other professional Councils such as Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC), this Council should also start registration of its graduating students from the accredited programs. In this way, the council can generate adequate amount as registration fee and can be used for accreditation activities.

iv. The Council resolved that HEC should be approached requesting that NAEAC’s budget is grossly inadequate to accomplish its targets. Unlike other Councils, this Council has no source of revenue as all the institutions are under the Public sector which charge nominal fees. As such substantial increase in budget from Rs.2.00 million to Rs.5.00 million is needed to accomplish its task and meet HEC targets of accreditation, training workshops/seminars, meetings of the Council, the development of database etc, within next 3 years.

18. The Meeting adjourned with vote of thanks to the chair.

Minutes of the Third Meeting of National Agriculture Education Accreditation Council

(12 January, 2009)

The third meeting of the National Agriculture Education Accreditation Council (NAEAC) was held on January 12, 2009 at 10:30 am in the Mural Hall of Higher Education Commission (HEC), Sector H-9, Islamabad. The meeting was chaired by Dr. M. E. Tusneem, Chairman, NAEAC and attended by Members of the Council.

2. The meeting commenced with the recitation from the Holy Quran.

3. The Chair welcomed the members to the third meeting of the Council and thanked them for their guidance, cooperation, and support. The Chair recalled that the Council though established in 2006 became operational in financial year 2007-08 upon receiving the first grant of Rs.2.5 million from HEC in September, 2007. He noted that the Council has since undertaken a number of activities and its overall performance during the year was impressive. The notable activities included the standardization of various criteria, procedures and processes for accreditation, SOPs of NAEAC, self study pro-forma, registration procedures of the Agri. Institutions, collection of benchmark information for setting up database. Program Evaluator’s selection and appointment procedures, etc.. Most importantly, the first accreditation of the Institute of Soil and Environmental Sciences (ISES), UAF was completed. NAEAC website - linked to the main websites of HEC and PARC, was set up. The Chair acknowledged the generous support of HEC and thanked Advisor (QA&LI) and MD (QAA) for their continuing support and guidance.

4. Prof. Dr. Riaz Hussain Qureshi, Advisor (HEC) remarked that the Council has made good progress but still has lot to do to achieve its goals and objectives. He said that the main objective of NAEAC was to fix certain standards to maintain quality of education of agriculture universities and colleges at undergraduate level. Recently, the University of the Punjab and the University of Karachi have setup departments of plant pathology and plant protection respectively. Under NAEAC mandate, the council is obliged to review whether the standards and criteria established by HEC are being followed by these institutions. He urged that the members are required to attend the Council meetings personally and take active part in the decision making process of the Council. Proxies at the Council meetings must be discouraged. He appreciated the design of NAEAC website maintained by the council secretariat and remarked that it is a useful tool of feedback and may be further improved and updated. Regarding the level of administration of accreditation procedure, the Council may also review the operating procedures of PEC and PVMC etc.

5. Scretary National Agriculture Education Accreditation Council (NAEAC) presented the agenda to the Council members. A summary of the decisions taken in the meeting is given below.

Item #1: Confirmation of the Minutes of the Second Meeting of National Agriculture Education Accreditation Council (NAEAC)

6. The Second meeting of the National Agriculture Education Accreditation Council (NAEAC) was held on March 31, 2008 at 1000 hours in the Committee Room of PARC HQ’s, Islamabad. The draft minutes were circulated to all members of the Council and finalized in the light of their comments/views. The Council confirmed the minutes.

Item# II: Circulation of NAEAC Annual Report, 2007-08

7. NAEAC’s first Annual Report of its operations for the fiscal year 2007-08 was circulated to the honorable members for their information and their comments and views were sought on the report format, content and designs for such reports in future.

Item# III: Approval of Annual Work Plan for 2008-09

8. National Agriculture Education Accreditation Council (NAEAC) is mandated to improve the standard and quality of education of the agriculture disciplines. It is striving to achieve the quality assurance and quality improvement of agriculture education degree awarding programs based on established standards, policies, procedures and criteria. The magnitude of the Council activities under the annual work plan depends mainly upon the availability of the financial resources.

The meeting endorsed the Work Plan for 2008-09 and decided to hold only two Council Meetings in a year instead of three.

Item# IV: Approval of NAEAC Budget for FY 2008-09

9. Secretary NAEAC presented the budget for 2008-09 for approval of the Council. The meeting was informed that out of budget allocation of Rs. 2.0 million for 2008-09, only Rs. 1.0 million was released as first installment while second installment of Rs. 1.0 million is expected in February – March, 2009.

10. In order to reduce the expenditure of Council meetings, different views were expressed for payment of TA/DA to Council members for attending Council meetings. It was suggested that Air travel expenses may be borne by the parent department while boarding, lodging and local travel expenditure may be met by the Council. In this regard PEC and PVMC rules and procedures may also be consulted.

Finally, it was agreed to reduce the TA/DA budget by 50% for Council Members and use these funds under other heads such as Meetings/Seminars (72-63) and Accreditation Visits. The Secretariat was advised to revise the budget accordingly.

Item# V: Approval of Recommendations of Accreditation Inspection Committee for the Degree Programs of the Institute of Soil and Environmental Sciences (ISES), UAF.

11. Accreditation Inspection Committee of NAEAC conducted external audit of the degree programs of Institute of Soil and Environmental Science (ISES), UAF in the last week of June, 2008. The team submitted its recommendations for accreditation to chairman of the Council. Salient points of the AIC report are submitted for the consideration/approval of the Council.

The Council members reviewed the AIC findings and Recommendations. They appreciated the efforts of the committee for preparing the report in a participatory manner with the teaching faculty and other stakeholders and endorsed the report.

Item# VI: Circulation of Manual for Orientation of Program Evaluators

12. The Council is obliged to prepare guidelines and procedures as well as to determine the criteria and standards for the Program Evaluators to ensure an effective, unbiased, consistent and transparent assessment of degree programs. Therefore, NAEAC Secretariat has developed a manual to sensitize and facilitate the Program Evaluators/ Experts. The manual covers a variety of aspects including role and responsibilities of the AIC Convener, members and Coordinators of accreditation exercise.

It was agreed that draft Manual for orientation of Program Evaluators be circulated to all Council members for their comments.

Item# VII: Constitution of Executive Committee (EC) of NAEAC

13. With a view to dispose off day-to-day business of the Council expeditiously, it was proposed to set up an Executive Committee as per byelaws-14 sub-section (a) of NAEAC which stipulates that the Council may set up as many committees as may be required to effectively perform its functions. The proposal was submitted to the Council for consideration/ approval.

After deliberations on the TOR of Executive Committee, the Council approved the formation of Executive Committee (EC) of the NAEAC subject to the revisions of the TORs of EC as proposed by the Council (Annex -- II).

Item # VIII: Review of Accreditation Fee Structure

14. In Pakistan, Agricultural institutions of higher learning are in the public sector. These institutions charge very low tuition fee/ funds from students and their main source of revenue is Government annual budgetary allocations. The issue of accreditation fee was discussed in the earlier meetings of NAEAC and it was agreed that there should be either no or nominal accreditation fee. An amount of Rs.25,000/- was considered reasonable as one time lump-sum payment. Moreover, it is pertinent to mention that National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) of India, an autonomous body of University Grants Commission (UGC), India charges no accreditation fee from Public Sector Higher Education Institutions.

After deliberation, the Council agreed to adopt the following accreditation fee structure:

i) Accreditation fee shall be charged at the Faculty level.
ii) Minimum of Rs.50, 000/- with at least Rs.10, 000/- per Discipline accredited.
iii) Maximum of Rs. 100, 000/- for ten and more Disciplines.

15. Chairman NAEAC urged the Council Members from private sector / agro-industry to make tangible contribution and patronize the Council activities as their valuable input and support is essential to upgrade the standard of agriculture education, as the high-quality graduates would serve the industry better in improving their productivity and international competitiveness in agriculture.

16. The Meeting adjourned with vote of thanks to the chair.


Minutes of Second NAEAC Meeting

Minutes of First NAEAC Meeting