Since the last few decades, the trend of service and marketing in higher education is self-evident. Universities are viewed as markets and students as customers. This research aims to explore education service quality (ESQ) at universities of Pakistan. Punjab is the most populous province of Pakistan having 60 universities. The study is delimited to 29 general public universities of Punjab. Six universities were randomly selected i.e. – University of the Punjab, Government College University Lahore, Islamia University Bahawalpur, University of Sargodha, University of Gujrat, and Government College University Faisalabad. The research relied on the perception of 33 service delivery staff of these universities. A semi-structured interview schedule mainly based on the HEdPERF model (Abdullah 2006) was used, which included six indicators – admissions, academic aspect, non-academic aspects, reputation, access, and program issues. Interviews were transcribed for thematic analysis. It was found that overall ESQ for all six indicators was perceived to be poor and non-academic services were reported to be in a very discouraging state; however, admissions services were found comparatively better. The study recommends that ESQ should be improved by continuously assessing students’ needs and observing trends and demands operative in the contemporary higher education scenario.

Learning outcomes is always an extensive research area in higher education. The research is to assess the learning outcomes of university graduates. To accomplish the aim, descriptive research and survey design was used for data collection. It was the case study of the University of Sargodha. A self-developed questionnaire was validated by expert opinion, and reliability was established at .92. For analyzing the data, descriptive and inferential statistics were applied to test the mean difference of participative programs. It was found that there is no significant difference in the learning of students on the basis of the program in which they are enrolled. The study recommends an extensive study of learning outcomes in higher education.

Private or additional tutoring has a greater impact on learning. It is more frequent among the secondary school students of Science and Mathematics. The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of additional tutoring on the academic achievements of Grad 9 students in Mathematics. In this study, there was one independent variable i. e. additional tuition, and one dependent variable academic achievement. A self-developed questionnaire was administered to conveniently sampled students of three public and one private school from district Sargodha. In total 118 students responded. The research hypothesis was ‘there is no significant relationship between additional tuition and academic achievement’. Collected data were analyzed at α=0.05 (the level of significance) to test the hypothesis. Although nonparametric statistic (Spearman rho and Kruskal-Wallis) was suitable to the type of data we had; nevertheless, we calculated parametric statistic (Pearson r and ANOVA) as well, using SPSS to have a comparative look at the two different types of statistic. Based on our analyses we reject the null hypotheses i. e. there is no significant relationship between additional tuition and academic achievement. We, henceforth, conclude that the additional tuition has a greater impact on the achievement of 9th graders in Mathematics. Thus, we recommend increasing the sample size. A similar investigation in other institutes of higher education could also be an extension to our study. The study may be carried out by adding more variables to academic achievement.

Organizations have adopted numerous mechanisms to increase the participation of women in top management. For the purpose, organizations are adopting gender mainstreaming strategies (GEMS) for gender equality as an important aspect of human resource development (HRD) practices. The present quantitative survey was to explore the perception of employees about gender mainstreaming strategies reflected through human resource practices at the university level. The population of the study was all regular teachers of the University of Sargodha. In the wake of limited resources of time and finance, a convenient sampling technique was used to select a sample of 200 teachers (35% of the population). The study adopted a standardized research instrument of an international labor organization (ILO) of the United Nations (UN) to assess GEMS and HRD practices at university. Descriptive and inferential statistics were applied using SPSS version 23. No gender difference was found in (1) Gender Balance and Equal Pay, (2) job description and terms of reference, (3) Recruitment Procedures, and (4) staff appraisals. Specificity in taking one university was the strength of this study which was the main limitation (besides convenient sampling) to generalize its findings. It implied greater awareness among the stakeholder in order to enhance the quality of the learning organization i. e. university. It was the first-ever study at the university level in the local context. This study recommended that the university administration should have better awareness and understanding of GEMS for recruitment and their ensuing work assignments.

In this paper, I[1], as a teacher educator and researcher, present the findings of my action research with two teachers in facilitating them carrying out their action research projects in classrooms in the Northern Areas of Pakistan. The data for the study came from reflective journals, semi-structured interviews, field notes, lesson observations, and reports. The findings of the study show that action research is one of the most effective strategies for the professional development of teacher educators and teachers yet it is a challenging process. Field reality and dynamics make an action research project challenging yet responsive to the needs. A three stage-model surfaced from the project in the context of planning and executing action research in schools. The paper concludes with certain implications and questions for policymakers, schools, and teacher educators to use action research as a strategy in pre-and in-service teacher education programs in Pakistan or elsewhere in a similar context.