HEC National Academy of Higher Education’s Professional Competency Enhancement Program for Teachers (PCEPT) Course at KMU, Peshawar – August 2011

A 16 days professional competency Enhancement Program for Teachers (PCEPT) organized by Khyber Medical University (KMU) in collaboration with National Academy of Higher Education (NAHE) Islamabad is going on here at Institute of Basic Medical Sciences campus near Shalman Park Phase-VI Hayatabad Peshawar. Dr. Jane-Alam Khaki of Aga Khan University Karachi was the facilitator of the 2nd session of the program.
While talking to the session on Academic Planning and Management Dr. Jan-e-Alam Khaki said that NAHE, HEC is tried its best to give importance to certain key areas, including academic planning and management, need to be strengthened at all levels, if the status quo is to be challenged and changed. As a result of extensive deliberations at HEC-NAHE, a selected team of academicians suggested a framework of developing key modules that should serve as a stepping stone in upgrading the academic planning and management skills of the higher education faculty members. The current module is one of them. This module explores the basic concepts of academic planning and management.
Dr. Khaki said, by academic planning and management, we mean, key areas and activities to be carried out by a faculty member to perform his/her academic work in a meaningful way. He elaborated that the rationale for introducing this module in this important exercise is that faculty members, heads of departments, and courses coordinators have to plan and manage academic activities in their programs. Academic institutions need to follow certain academic standards and conventions which characterize academic work.
Dr. Jan-e-Alam said academic planning and management skills could give a sense of confidence to facilitators in carrying out their day to day academic responsibilities and save them from shocks and surprises. By planning and managing teaching, research and service well, faculty members will be able to have more mastery over their work, leading to institutional effectiveness and personal growth.
The term ‘Academic Planning and Management' is used in this module in combination to the concept of ‘administrative' planning and management. Under the term - academic planning and management, there were a number of areas that were discussed however, for the purpose of this module, only three key concepts will be dealt with notions of academic planning and management; academic planning and management of teaching and learning and planning and management of research