We can say that the year behind us was full of challenges but significant results for ACQAHE.
In addition to ongoing accreditation procedures, we conducted the reaccreditation procedure of the state University (19 organizational units) and completed it in 4 months.
In that process, we 6 coordinators from the Agency participated. Experts from various scientific fields, 54 of them, performed an institutional evaluation and gave recommendations for improving the quality of Montenegrin higher education. Based on the fact that it was external evaluation of a state university with a significant number of programs in various scientific fields, 88.9% of experts were hired from state institutions from the region (Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Macedonia), while 11.1% of experts were hired from Montenegro. We have doubled the number of experts on our list, specifically with experts from outside our area of higher education and with with significant international experience in quality assurance processes.
We managed to ensure impartiality as well as a high level of responsibility and quality in the evaluation process.
Together with the Ministry of Education, we hosted senior EQAR and ENQA officials with whom we discussed plans for the comprehensive and consistent application of European Standards and Guidelines (ESG) in the Montenegrin higher education system.
Through project activities, we adopted an additional standard for study programs for initial teacher education (through the project “Integration of key competences into the Montenegrin education system”) and a supplementary standard on academic integrity in the process of reaccreditation of higher education institutions (through the project “Quality education for all” with the Council of Europe). Test evaluation of one standard is underway, and plans for pilot testing and evaluation of another standard are in preparation.
Through the project “Strengthening internationalization at universities in Montenegro through effective strategic planning – IESP”, in which ACQAHE was also a partner, we accredited two international summer schools at the University of Montenegro (“Sustainable development of the yachting and cruising industry” at the Maritime Faculty and “Entrepreneurship in heritage tourism” at the Faculty of Tourism and Hotel Management).
We have started the process of improving by-laws.
We will continue checking the implementation of the recommendations of accredited study programs and reaccredited higher education institutions.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Goran Danilović
Acting director of the Agency for Control and
Quality Assurance of Higher Education