The COVID-19 pandemic has affected people from almost every walk of life in general and academia in particular. It had a huge impact on teaching and learning resulting in a sudden shift from classroom and face-to-face teaching to distance and online teaching and learning. This sudden shift created a lot of ruckuses in the teaching of engineering disciplines. This study is pertinent to the examination of faculty perceptions of online teaching in Pakistani universities and the obstacles they face in teaching engineering students through the online mode during this pandemic. The research takes a quantitative and sample survey approach. A Google form questionnaire was used to collect the data from a sample of 91 faculty members from the engineering discipline of different universities in Pakistan during 2022. According to the study’s findings, faculty generally have a favorable opinion of virtual teaching in the context of COVID-19 for closing the achievement gap and guiding students’ futures in difficult times. However, they ran into a number of challenges when teaching online, including technological difficulties, problems with student participation, challenges with online tests and assessments, etc. The results of this study will urge educational institutions and policymakers to use the most up-to-date instructional methodologies and offer teachers ongoing professional development in order to improve the quality of online teaching, learning, and assessment in universities. Previous studies discussed a number of obstacles faced by students in virtual teaching in higher education, overlooking the perception and challenges faced by the engineering faculty. The present study replenishes this gap.

It is evident from the literature that transformational leadership [TL] and participative decision-making [PDM] is currently considered very dominating approaches in academia and significantly affect universities' performance. Both of these are also likely to be associated with other variables in the context of universities, such as teachers’ self-efficacy, motivation, and job satisfaction. Considering the significance of these variables, not much research has been conducted to examine the relationship between these variables in the context of Pakistani higher education. This study thus intends to measure the link between transformational leadership and participative decision-making with related outcomes of teachers’ self-efficacy, intrinsic motivation and job satisfaction. A survey was conducted to collect data from the teachers of four public and private universities in Pakistan. Through a stratified sampling technique, a sample of 218 teachers from public and private universities were collected to rate their leaders. Multiple regression analysis was carried out to conclude. Somewhat strange findings were inferred from the analyses. Our hypothesis is partially accepted as the impact of TL and PDM is associated with teachers’ job satisfaction in public and private universities. Moreover, the impact on intrinsic motivation is weak. These findings, to some extent, corroborated with earlier research and developed explanations of why Pakistani universities are different from other higher education institutes in view of adopting leadership and decision-making practices. It is, therefore, recommended that universities need to promote transformational leadership and engage teachers in participative decision-making to enhance their performance.

Self-control and self-management are critical skills for university students, facilitating academic success by enabling effective time management, focus, and the ability to overcome distractions. Considering the significance of self-control and self-management skills for university students, this quantitative study aimed to assess the perceived levels of self-control and self-management skills among students from two public and one private sector university in Multan, Pakistan. Utilizing a survey design, data were collected from 1,180 university students through a 16-item questionnaire structured into three subscales, namely: self-monitoring, self-evaluating, and self-reinforcing. The reliability of the questionnaire was established using Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient with a value of 0.83. Descriptive statistics (percentages, means, standard deviations) and inferential analyses (independent sample t-tests, ANOVA) were applied to examine overall student perceptions and identify differences based on university sector and academic discipline. The findings of research revealed that students perceived themselves to possess moderate levels of self-control and self-management skills, with significant differences observed between public and private sector students, as well as across academic disciplines. These variations suggest that institutional and disciplinary contexts may influence students’ development of these skills. The study concludes with practical recommendations for educators and students to strengthen self-control and self-management competencies, contributing to improved academic outcomes and personal growth.

The relationship between students' self-efficacy in mathematics and their anxiety is a critical area of research, as it has significant implications for educational outcomes and student well-being. This study aimed to investigate the correlation between mathematics self-efficacy and anxiety among secondary school students. A correlational research design was employed, with the target population consisting of all male and female students enrolled in public and private schools in the Khanewal district. A stratified random sampling technique was used to select a sample of 1,386 students. Data were collected using a questionnaire that included two scales: the Mathematics Self-Efficacy Scale and the Anxiety Scale. Out of the 1,386 distributed questionnaires, 1,072 were returned, resulting in a response rate of 77%. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Pearson's correlation method. Descriptive analyses revealed that students generally perceived their mathematics self-efficacy positively, while they reported higher levels of mathematics anxiety. Pearson’s correlation analysis (two-tailed) indicated a weak negative relationship between mathematics self-efficacy and mathematics anxiety. These findings suggest that enhancing students' mathematics self-efficacy may lead to a reduction in their mathematics anxiety.

Internationally, centralized systems for collecting students’ feedback have become an increasingly common practice in higher education institutions [HEIs] for monitoring quality of teaching as well as for professional development of faculty members. The collection, analysis and reporting of evaluation results are carried out systematically in many HEIs across the globe. However, how to effectively close the feedback loop with students as well as teachers on the results of student evaluations of teaching [SETs] remain an issue to be addressed. Consistent with global trend, HEIs in Pakistan are also supposed to conduct SETs. In this context, the main intention of this study was to determine whether the cycle of teaching evaluation process is completed, and feedback loop proceeds effectively towards closing around the SETs or not in Pakistani HEIs. To achieve the objective, the triangulation design was used in which an online search was carried out in 130 Pakistani HEIs’ official websites to collect qualitative data. Concurrently, a questionnaire comprising 13 close-ended items, with “yes-and-no” scale, was administered in online format to collect quantitative data from a sample of 507 faculty members and 110 administrators from 130 Pakistani HEIs. Based on content analysis of documents and descriptive analysis of participants’ responses, this paper concludes that universities in Pakistan are bound by HEC to collect feedback from students using central system of Quality Enhancement Cells, but limited attention has been placed to close the feedback loop with students and teachers to inform improvements. Finally, this paper recommends the need for universities in Pakistan to genuinely listen to students’ voices and to act on their feedback as part of quality assurance.