The goal of this assignment was to facilitate verification of enrollment numbers, number of academic staff, and ICT centers in public universities of Afghanistan. OEDA conducted a Third-Party Validation of selected key indicators in the Afghan Public Universities. The assignment was aimed at verification of and validation of exact number of students enrolled as of October 2019 (Fall semester of 1398 academic year), including new entrant female students in the higher education stream and total enrollment in all classes of selected priority disciplines in 22 public universities of Afghanistan. Besides this the assignment includes an activity to verify the number of all academic staff of public universities with at least a master’s degree or higher within priority disciplines, and lastly verify the numbers and details of full time ICT technicians stationed at 12 public universities across the country.

OEDA was assigned to achieve the above objective as a technical, independent, and third-party organization. The verification targets ten priority disciplines in the public universities of Afghanistan, OEDA undertook this in close collaboration with MoHE and the relevant public universities at the national level and sub-national levels.  To achieve the above objectives, OEDA has conducted secondary data analysis of students’ enrollment data maintained by MoHE, identified key indicators for verification, reviewed the mechanisms through which the students are introduced for enrollment to public universities, contacted target public universities and collected relevant information and documentation for verification. This verification was based on 10 predefined priority disciplines within the 23 public universities, and 122 Higher Education Institutes.

The assignment was designed to help HEDP to:

• Understand the exact number of first year female enrolment at priority disciplines at public universities by fall semester of 1398.

• Understand the exact number of total enrolment of students enrolled at priority disciplines at public uni. by fall semester of 1398.

• Understand the exact number of full-time academic staff with at least a master’s degree in priority degree programs at public universities and higher education institutes by March 2020.

• Understand the number of available full-time technical staff (technicians) at ICT centers of 12 universities.