ALLAMA IQBAL OPEN UNIVERSITY Quality Enhancement Cell Academic Audit of AIOU, 2006 1.Professor Dr Mohammad Daud Awan (Salam Teacher Award, 2004) Director Quality Enhancement Cell & Director Academic Planning & Course Production Former Vice-Chancellor, Hazara University (2002-2006) 2.Muhammad Amjad Ali, Senior Course Production Coordinator Acknowledgements: 1. Faculty of AIOU for providing data and for plans to Enhance the quality of course delivery packages. 2. Media Advisory Committee, Deans Committee and the Vice Chancellor for their deliberations, appreciation and declaring the report as ‘Benchmark Reference Report’. 3. Deputy Director AP&CP, Mrs. Arifa Salman cross-checked the data. 4. Mr. Imran Qamar and Mr. Faisal Imtiaz typed the report. NB I. Suggestions are welcome. A readymade response form is placed at the end of this report. II. For “Financial Audit of AIOU Educational Provision” see separate report. References 1. Awan, M. D.,Chronology of AIOU Courses, Media Support, Present and Future Plans. AIOU Printing Press, February, 1998 2. HEC,www.hec.gov.pk/Quality Provision.htm, 20.3.2007 3. Lee Harvey, Analytic Quality Glossary, UK, 2004 (Qualityresearchinternational.com/glossary/ List of Contents Sr # Content Page No 1 PREFACE v 2 ACADEMIC AUDIT OF AIOU, 2006 1 2.1Introduction 1 2.2Academic Audit Process 1 2.3Faculty-wise Course Media Coverage 2 2.4Master, MPhil & PhD Level Programmes 2 2.5Teaching Learning Process 2 2.6Committee of Courses 3 2.7External Members of the Committees of Courses 3 2.8External Experts in Higher Authorities of the Course Designing Process 3 2.9Conclusion 5 3 LEVEL-WISE COURSES OF AIOU, DECEMBER 2006 6 4 FACULTY-WISE OVERVIEW OF OFFERED COURSES 6 5 FACULTY-WISE FUTURE PLANS OF PROGRAMMES & COURSES 7 5.1Faculty-wise Future Plans to Develop New Courses 7 5.2 Department-wise Future Plans of Faculty of Social Sciences 7 & Humanities 5.3Department-wise Future Plans of Faculty of Sciences 8 5.4Department-wise Future Plans of Faculty of Education 8 Department-wise Future Plans of Faculty of Arabic & Islamic studies 8 5.6Future Plans of Institute of Mass Education 9 6 COURSES & ICT SUPPORT UP TO DECEMBER, 2006 9 6.1Faculty-Wise ICT Support 9 6.2Courses with ICT Support 9 6.3Level-wise Courses & Media Support 9 COURSE-WISE/DEPARTMENT-WISE MEDIA SUPPORT 7 10 UP TO DECEMBER, 2006 7.1Faculty of Social Sciences & Humanities 10 7.2Faculty of Sciences 12 7.3 Faculty of Education 15 7.4 Faculty of Arabic and Islamic Studies 16 7.5 Institute of Mass Education 17 8 MASTER, MPhil & PhD PROGRAMMES OF AIOU 17 8.1Faculty of Social Sciences & Humanities 17 Sr # Content Page No 2 8.2Faculty of Sciences 29 8.3Faculty of Education 43 8.4Faculty of Arabic & Islamic Studies 49 PROGRAMME-WISE CHRONOLOGY OF AIOU COURSES 9 52 LAUNCHING, REVISION & REVISION PLANS (1)Functional Basic and Non-Credit Courses 52 (2)Secondary School Certificate (SSC) Programme 58 (3)Higher Secondary School Certificate Programmes (HSSC) 59 (4)Bachelor Programmes 65 (5) Teacher Education Programmes up to Bachelor Level 79 (6)Postgraduate Diploma & Master Programmes 82 (7)MPhil/MS/MSc (Hons) Programmes 104 (8)MPhil Based PhD Programmes 110 (9) Direct PhD Programmes 111 10 UNIVERSITY COURSES OFFERED IN MORE THAN ONE PROGRAMME 114 10.1 Courses Offered with Same Code No. in Two Programmes 114 10.2Same Courses Offered With Double Course Codes 124 COURSE CODE NUMBER OF AIOU COURSES IN THE 11 128 SERIES OF THREE AND FOUR DIGITS 11.1 Detail of three digit code numbers (001to 999) allocated to AIOU 129 courses under different programmes 11.2 Detail of four-digit code numbers allocated to AIOU courses 131 under different programmes 12 UNIVERSITY PROGRAMMES, COURSES AND CREDITS 134 ADMISSION ELIGIBLITY CRITERIA IN AIOU STUDY PROGRAMEES, 13 138 LAUNCHED IN 2006 14 COMMITTEES OF COURSES 142 14.1Constitution 142 14.2 External Members of Committee of Courses 143 14.3Faculty of Social Sciences & Humanities 143 14.4 Faculty of Sciences 149 14.5Faculty of Education 152 14.6 Faculty of Arabic & Islamic Studies 155 15 FACULTY BOARD 158 16 AIOU ACADEMIC COUNCIL 160 17 COMMITTEE FOR RESEARCH AND EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY 164 18 ACADEMIC PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE 168 Sr # Content Page No 3 19 CREDIT EQUATION COMMITTEE 170 20 List of Radio Programmes 172 21 List of TV Programmes 178 22 Course Profile Proforma 185 23 Programme Profile Proforma 186 24 Check List of Course Coordinator for Vetting Radio Programme 187 25 Proforma for Course Media Production Plan 188 26 Course Assignment Authentication Certification (Prohibition of Plagiarism 189 & Enhancement of Quality) 27 THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL, AIOU. 190 28 SELECTION BOARD, AIOU 192 29 THE AIOU FINANCE COMMITTEE 193 30 SUGGESTIONS/COMMENTS/FEEDBACK 194 PREFACE 4 The “Academic Audit of AIOU, 2006” addresses a very important issue of course development and provides a whole academic and ICT support picture of the Allama Iqbal Open University. It arises out of concern to ensure that AIOU courses and programs should be of good quality and high standard as the University aims to ensure that our students receive quality study material and that the material is totally self- contained and up-to-date. The attempts to revise courses and syllabi in our country have varying degrees of success. Some universities might be teaching old courses while others follow new trends in their study programs. But as the facts are presented here for consideration of all those, who are involved, there is a great hope that courses will be revised and Audio Visual media produced within the plan period. I believe that this report has a great potential for course improvement. I see speedy academic progress particularly at postgraduate level. The University launched twenty three PhD programs, eighteen MPhil programs and thirty five Master level programs since its establishment. The development is remarkable one. New courses required for postgraduate programs have been carefully developed to meet standards. The number of courses and complexity of the burden, which the academics have taken on through the years, is impressive. There is no doubt that the University has performed unique service in providing print, AV aids, broadcast and non-broadcast materials to millions of its students. Yet a lot remains to be done. In some areas the courses and media support have not been revised and there is no significant improvement in production of current and up-to-date course content, that could be delivered through various media. A strong collaboration of the academic community of AIOU with the external members of committees of courses has been a special feature of course development. I hope that this public acknowledgment of their appointment as discipline experts by itself is a recognition of their academic contribution to AIOU academic development. This will further stimulate AIOU faculty to work harder for improving the quality of AIOU courses. Moreover, I have been impressed by the internal academic audits done by the departments to review and refine the existing curricula and the standards of conduct of the Academic Audit by, Prof. Dr. Muhammad Daud Awan and his staff and their commitment to efficiency is also commendable. I do hope that all academics both internal and external, Institute of Educational Technology, Deans and Heads will go through this report and with their utmost efforts will improve the quality of instructional materials according to the plans they themselves have set for. I wish them success in their endeavors, Prof. Dr. Mahmood H. Butt Vice-Chancellor 5 2. ACADEMIC AUDIT OF AIOU, 2006 2.1 INTRODUCTION: In the competitive world of today institutions are striving to provide affordable quality education. For providing quality education institutions adopt different strategies and policies and academic audit is one on the forefront in the global perspective nowadays. An academic audit (AA) reviews the processes or procedures that faculty members use to provide quality education in their department. It checks that procedures are in place to assure quality, integrity, standards of educational provisions and outcomes. Academic Audit, however, evaluates “processes rather than evaluating quality”1. Particularly the mission of Internal Audit is to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of an institution’s procedures and related internal control for maintaining and enhancing quality of academic pursuits of a department at micro level or the institution at macro level. While, “quality is the means through which an institution can guarantee with confidence and certainty that the standards of its educational provision are maintained and enhanced”2. Academic quality is a way to describe how well the learning opportunities are available to the students to help them to achieve their award, for example a degree for which each university is responsible for standards and quality of its academic awards and programmes having national or international trustworthiness and accreditation. Allama Iqbal Open University, established under an Act of Parliament in 1974, is the 4th largest university of the world having more than seven hundred thousand students in each semester enrolled from Basic to PhD level. The AIOU notified 1377 courses till the end of December, 2006 in 124 programmes at 9 levels. The University has well defined processes of course development and certainly provides quality education befitting the quality of its clientele who have full trust in its educational programmes. That is why enrolment increases in each semester. However, for having confidence and for the credibility of the University programmes, we decided to have an academic audit of its educational provision and to encourage the departments to strengthen the procedures, techniques and processes they have in place or they have to set, to further improve the quality of the AIOU educational provision/their work. 2.2 ACADEMIC AUDIT PROCESS There are five areas that are mostly examined in an academic audit i.e.