Annual Report 2021 slide image

Annual Report 2021

Changes in Online Admission Application during COVID To facilitate the candidates, UCP changed its online admission application by making it more user friendly and introduced features in the application which facilitates candidates in a more efficient way A total of 3 preferences have been added in the new admission application so applicants can apply in 3 programs of their choice at the same time without any further charges Program change policy has been introduced which helps candidates to change their program after the selection without any difficulty. To make it more convenient for the candidates, the online payment method has been introduced in the admission application. Now the applicants have 3 different modes (Designated Banks, On Campus & Online) through which they can pay the application processing fee/Semester fee and they can choose the method according to their convenience. Online documents verification has also been introduced at the backend so candidates can get their fee challan online after selection and applicants can pay the fee online without visiting the campus. Due to COVID-19, we made sure to conduct our admission test online for undergraduate and graduate programs. The special URL was created for this purpose to make it convenient for candidates to appear in the test without any difficulty. Impact of the above-mentioned Changes • • • An online admission application including online document verification, online admission test, online application processing fee challan issuance and payment, online semester fee challan issuance and payment after the selection made it easy for the applicants to complete their application process without any difficulty and without visiting the campus. We can see this impact of these changes in the increase of our number of applications each term as with everything available online, candidates do not need to commute for anything and it is easier for them to apply for admissions Availability of offering 3 preferences at the time of admissions has a huge impact on our number of applications. We do not charge extra money for that and when an applicant is applying, they are usually confused among options and at UCP they can apply for 3 programs of their own choice and change their preferences afterwards. It is a facility which is giving them a sense of trust that they can change their program at any time once they are selected in the merit list Due to the above-mentioned changes, we have seen an increase in our admission application number in past three years. 14,575 Fall 2019 Total No. of Applicants 16,939 Fall 2020 2,018 Spring 2019 2,452 Spring 2020 17,303 Fall 2021 2,940 Spring 2021 Virtual Learning Environment In wake of COVID 19 outbreak, Pakistan government issued strict directives to close down all the educational institutions. Higher Education Commission (HEC) issued detailed guidelines wherein Universities were encouraged to adopt online teaching methodologies to safeguard students' learning. UCP adopted online education in compliance with all the regulatory bodies of Pakistan for its graduate and undergraduate degree programs, and this facility was called Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). As this was a totally new experience for both students and faculty alike, therefore a thorough mechanism was implemented to facilitate, train and upgrade as well as collect feedback from the faculty and students to ensure the Quality of education, learning and for the future improvements. Online Meetings UCP shifted all its meetings online on Microsoft Team. Department to Faculty and Management, Section Heads and Dean's Meeting and all statutory meetings were held online successfully as scheduled without any delay through online platform Microsoft Teams. Thesis Defences were also conducted for Graduate Programs. Online Readiness (System, Class, Faculty, Student) A dedicated system for online teaching and learning was put in place: • • • • • • • UCP drafted and shared a complete policy for online teaching focusing on online classes and learning for students, course and program delivery and assessment mechanism. UCP also established a Quality Assurance mechanism to ensure the Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) of the VLE education, teaching and help to resolve the academic and administrative issues raised by the students at UCP. It also helps in devising new strategies, action plans and improvements based on feedback received through the Quality Assurance mechanism at UCP UCP has a fully functional Learning Management System and falls in the category of Advance Universities. Quality Committees were also established to monitor, asses and evaluate the overall delivery of online education at Department and Faculty level and to resolve all the issues related to the Virtual Learning Environment at UCP. UCP library provided virtual services to UCP community (Faculty, Students & Staff). Faculty members, who are responsible for teaching and training, should be aware of the principle of online course design, development, and implementation. For this purpose, a survey was conducted to ask the training needs of faculty. Webinars and training sessions were also conducted to train the faculty. Online Classes Held Reports were generated daily to monitor the status of online classes and participation of students. Faculty and student problems related to VLE were handled through email and online portals. Dedicated teams had been working around the clock to resolve issues. Most importantly, UCP developed a complete online assessment system on Business Intelligence (BI), led by Quality Enhancement Cell (QEC) where feedback/assessment reports was made available on single click on dashboards for the top management and other stakeholders of university to make informed decisions corrective action plans thereof. 95 Annual Report 2021 96 Annual Report 2021
View entire presentation