Seminar on Sports Management

The Quality Enhancement Cell has planned to organize a seminar on "Sports Management and Sports for Development" on 19 May 2010 at 2:00 pm at the UAAR Auditorium. The resource person is Major (R) Aamir Bilal. Major Bilal is an eminent writer and has remained Media Advisor and Official Spokesperson of Pakistan Cricket Board. The seminar is open for all the faculty and students.

Revision of Policy for Plagiarism in Theses

The Arid University Syndicate, in its 54th Meeting held on 30 January 2010, has approved the recommendations of the 38th meeting of the Academic Council regarding the policy for plagiarism in postgraduate theses and acceptance of the theses for the award. It was decided that:

1. Anti-plagiarism software access would be provided to all faculty members and necessary training in this regard will be arranged by the Director QEC for all the faculty members.
2. The Supervisor will check each of his post-graduate student´s theses for plagiarism using the Anti-plagiarism software. The concerned Chairperson will send the theses to the Director Advanced Studies through proper channel along with the Plagiarism/Similarity Index (one-page) report and also a certificate stating that the thesis has been checked against the plagiarism and approved/cleared for submission {if the Similarity Index (excluding bibliography) is below 10% as already implemented}.
3. A CD containing the final version of each thesis, alongwith a copy of the Plagiarism/Similarity Index report and the certificate issued/signed by the respective Chairperson, will be provided to the Director QEC through the Controller of Examinations.
4. If plagiarism in the thesis is found at any stage in future, the supervisor and the concerned Chairperson issuing the certificate would be responsible.

It was also decided that for the acceptance of the final most hard bound copies of the PhD theses by the Controller of examinations for the award of degrees after the foreign referee´s reports, the Director QEC would check if necessary amendments/changes, as suggested by the referees, have been incorporated.

Anti-plagiarism Service Launched at AAUR

Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University has made special arrangements to detect plagiarism with the aid of an Anti-plagiarism software "TURNITIN". This product generates originality reports which assist supervisors and instructors to determine any problems in referencing or citation and allow them to review matches between submitted work and the databases. The Quality Enhancement Cell (QEC) at the Arid University has been equipped with this powerful tool and it is now ready to combat with plagiarism. Now the post-graduate students' theses will be checked against plagiarism prior to their external/foreign evaluation. This service will also help tackling academic and research deceit by checking papers for publications, student´s assignments and applications for research grants that will consequently lead to quality assurance. "This will help eliminating the growing fashion of plagiarism and breach of copyrights", the Director Quality Enhancement said. The Arid University is already committed to promote quality culture and is taking strict actions in the light of Plagiarism Policy developed by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan.

Preventing Plagiarism: A Complete Roadmap

The Quality Enhancement Cell PMAS-AAUR organized a seminar on Preventing Plagiarism: A Complete Roadmap through video conference on 04 March 2010 at 11:30 am in collaboration with the Quality Assurance Agency of the HEC. The resource person was Mr Muneer Ahmed, Deputy Director (QA). Faculty members, Dean & Directors attend the seminar. The venue is Video Conference Room, UIIT.

Video Conference Training Workshop on Anti-plagiarism Services at Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi

The Quality Enhancement Cell at the Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi organized a video conference training workshop on "How to use Turnitin Anti-plagiarism Software" in collaborate with the Quality Assurance Agency (Learning Innovative Division) HEC on 28 January 2010.
The workshop aimed to equip the faculty with the skills for effective and tactful use of the Anti-plagiarism Software. Mr Munir Ahmad, DD QA, HEC was resource person for the workshop who delivered 3 sessions. Deans, Directors and faculty members attended the workshop.
The Vice Chancellor, Prof. Dr Khalid Mahmood Khan (T.I) also attended the workshop. He showed great satisfaction on successful organization of the workshop. At the end of the session he emphasized the need of innovative research. There should have been new and innovative research rather than validating the other’s research. "This will also prevent the Plagiarism trend in the scientific working, the Vice Chancellor said". He said the supervisors are responsible for checking the plagiarism in the thesis of there students. The AAUR has a strict policy in this regard.
Professor Riaz Ahmad, Director QEC, said accounts for all the university faculty have already been created and the AAUR has a vigilant focus on the plagiarism check and the QEC team are forefront sliders to combat with the growing trend in the plagiarism.

Workshop on "Significance of Self Assessment in 21st Century Universities"

The Quality Enhancement Cell, AAUR has recently started Quality Enhancement Seminar/Lecture Series. In this regard the first workshop on "Significance of Self Assessment in 21st Century Universities" was held on the 20th of March, 2008 at the AAUR. The key speaker, Dr Farah Qadir, from the King’s College London, UK delivered a comprehensive lecture to Deans of the Faculties, Directors and Chairpersons of various departments on the importance of self assessment and its advantages, process of self discovery and its need for senior faculty members, and key concepts to enhance self knowledge. It also included an interactive session. Concluding the workshop, the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Dr Khalid Mahmood Khan, reiterated his determination of quality assurance in this institution. He stressed the need of self assessment and said that it was prerequisite of quality enhancement.

G8/BMENA Workshop on "Quality Assurance and Enhancement and Strategic Management in Higher Education"

Professor Dr Riaz Ahmad, Director Quality Enhancement Cell, participated in the G8/BMENA workshop on “Quality Assurance and Enhancement and Strategic Management in Higher Education” held at Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK on 28 -29 February 2008. A mixture of senior ministry officials, officials from major specialist delivery vehicles in country including national quality assurance agencies for higher education, and senior staff from progressive universities from across the Broader Middle East and North African (BMENA) region, the Group of Eight (G8), and other partner countries attended the workshop.

The main themes of the workshop were: how to balance/provide comprehensive and effective quality assurance (QA) processes, how to incorporate the culture of QA into organizations not fully familiar with such approaches, and how universities can know whether they are achieving "global HE standards".