Milica Kavedžić, Deputy Director in the Department for Quality Assurance and Research, and Montenegrin representative in the Bologna Follow-up Group (BFUG), attended the Meeting of the Group, which was held in Madrid from November 15-17, 2023.
The Meeting was attended by the delegations of the signatory countries of the Bologna process, 49 of them, with the aim of identifying the level of the implementation of the Bologna process in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). The BFUG Group is responsible for the implementation of activities, as well as for monitoring the measures and recommendations defined in the so-called “Communique”, between two Ministerial Conferences.
The co-chairs of the three-day meeting in Madrid were Spain (the host) and Georgia, as well as the co-chair country – Albania. Bearing in mind that Spain currently presides over the Council of the European Union, the meeting was opened by the State Secretary in the Ministry of Universities of Spain, who stated the importance of the implementation of the reforms brought by the Bologna process, while at the same time highlighting the challenges higher education system is facing with.
The focus of the Meeting was the preparation of documentation and the presentation of the results of the implementation of the Bologna Process, which will be adopted at the Ministerial Conference in Tirana, scheduled for May 29 and 30, 2024.
In this regard, during the Meeting, the draft versions of the Implementation Report and the “Communique” that will be signed by the ministers responsible for higher education in Tirana in 2024, were analyzed.
The Implementation Report, in which, at the initiative of the Montenegrin representative in the BFUG, the data related to Montenegro was also found, made the EHEA countries aware of Montenegro’s commitment to common, European reforms.
Analyzing the trends within quality assurance, it was stated that out of a total of 49 countries, 32 of them have fully complied with the European Standards and Guidelines (ESG) and apply them in the evaluation procedures of all higher education institutions, while 8 countries have achieved full compliance with ESG, however, the systems of those countries do not require continuous compliance with ESGs from all higher education institutions. On the other hand, the ESG is applied in 9 countries, including Montenegro, but these countries have not fully complied with its standards.
Bearing in mind that the “Communique” is the most important document which represents a strategic framework and establishes guidelines and recommendations for the development of higher education within EHEA, a large part of the discussion was dedicated to this topic. Therefore, during the Meeting the draft version of the “Communique” was presented for the first time, the so-called “Tirana Communique”. The mentioned document once again highlighted the importance of quality assurance and implementation of ESG standards.
The meeting resulted in recommendations to the member countries of the Bologna Process to provide additional efforts in order to improve the above-mentioned documents, and therefore to produce a qualitative basis for the establishment of the new strategic framework for the development of higher education within EHEA in the next four-year period.