First Teaching Excellence Framework planned for Pakistan

English universities are helping Pakistan to develop its own Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) to recognise and improve teaching quality across its higher education sector.

Informed by the Office for Students-run initiative, the project intends to create a national system for assessing how universities are delivering for their students.

Led by King’s College London, the framework is being developed for a sector that serves more than 2.3 million undergraduate students nationwide.

Funded by the British Council in partnership with Pakistan’s Higher Education Commission, it is working with 10 pilot institutions across the country.

Tabbi Wilberforce, project lead at King’s College London, told Times Higher Education that the decision to develop a TEF-style model for Pakistan was driven by the need to raise standards across the system.

It aims to “raise the overall quality and effectiveness of higher education by setting clear standards for educators and encouraging innovative methods that improve engagement and learning outcomes”, he said.

While informed by the UK model, Wilberforce stressed that the framework must respond to local realities including “limited resources and wide variation in institutional size, capacity and academic focus”. 

Rather than applying a uniform template, the framework is being developed around indicators intended to capture teaching quality, student experience and institutional effectiveness.

“Key metrics include student feedback gathered through national surveys, graduate outcomes such as employment and career readiness, and faculty engagement in professional development and inclusive pedagogical practices,” Wilberforce said.

National student and graduate outcomes surveys are currently being piloted in 10 institutions.

“Academics involved in developing the framework highlighted the opportunity to strengthen national data systems and move beyond end-of-semester evaluations towards long-term, evidence-based enhancement,” Wilberforce said.

He added that “change is inherently difficult, and educators, institutions and policymakers often struggle to shift away from long-standing practices. Limited financial and human resources in Pakistan constrain the development of training programmes, digital systems and the provision of sustained support. Moreover, Pakistan’s higher education institutions vary widely in size, capacity, and academic focus, making it challenging to apply a uniform framework across such diverse settings.”

Ultimately, he said, “success will be measured by the TEF’s sustainability, its integration into policy and institutional culture, and its ability to drive ongoing enhancements in the quality and performance of Pakistan’s higher education system”.

The University of Warwick is another institution involved, drawing on its experience as a gold-rated institution in the UK Teaching Excellence Framework 2023. The university will help with expertise in teaching evaluation, data-informed enhancement and student-centred learning.

Freeha Azmat, associate professor (reader) at the Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) at the University of Warwick and co-principal investigator on the project, said the collaboration highlighted the value of international partnership.

“This project is a powerful example of international collaboration for educational impact,” Azmat said. “By sharing expertise and best practice, we are helping to create a framework that celebrates and strengthens teaching excellence at a national level in Pakistan.”

Alongside Warwick and King’s, the UK partners include Aston University, the University of Birmingham and the University of Wolverhampton. The OfS is also providing advisory input.

tash.mosheim@timeshighereducation.com