The Regional Cooperation Council (RCC), through a project supporting the Western Balkan countries in quality assurance and meeting the European Standards and Guidelines (ESG), has provided financial resources for support from the Croatian Agency for Science and Higher Education (ASHE).
In this regard, on December 18, 2024, representatives of ASHE, Sandra Bezjak, former acting Director of ASHE and member of the Register Committee of the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR), and Mina Đorđević, Advisor for international cooperation visited ACQAHE with the goal of identifying the level of compliance of the Montenegrin quality assurance system with ESG.
On behalf of ACQAHE, the meeting was attended by Deputy Director Milica Kavedžić, and advisors Ana Rutović, Dunja Bulajić, Jelena Đukanović, and Kemal Demirović.
During the one-day visit, the second and third parts of the ESG were analyzed, as well as examples of good practices on the path to fulfilling ESG standards.
The visit was particularly significant considering the current context and the challenges posed by the work on drafting a new Law on Higher Education. In this regard, ensuring an optimal legal framework that will allow ACQAHE to align with ESG was emphasized, as a precondition for membership in ENQA and EQAR. The representatives of ASHE highlighted the importance of ACQAHE demonstrating its compliance with ESG, as without this, there will be no confirmation of the credibility of its work, and consequently, no credibility of the higher education system in Montenegro.
The meeting was concluded with the proposal to develop an Action Plan and explore possibilities for further support from ASHE in the upcoming period.