Director of the Agency for Control and Quality Assurance of Higher Education, Goran Danilović, participated in the Western Balkan Ministerial Conference: Quality and quality assurance in higher education – trends and developments in the EU and Western Balkans, which was held in Skopje on September 26 and 27, 2023.
The event, which was organized by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of North Macedonia in cooperation with the Education Reform Initiative of Southeast Europe (ERI SEE), was attended by the Minister of Education and Science of the Republic of North Macedonia, Jeton Shaqiri, the Minister of Education of Montenegro, Miomir Vojinović, Assistant Minister of Education of the Republic of Serbia, Aleksandar Jović, Vice-Minister of Education, Science and Sports of Lithuania, Agne Kudarauskiene, as well as over 80 participants, representatives of competent institutions dealing with quality assurance in higher education, representatives of the academic community and experts in the field of quality assurance of higher education from the Western Balkans and of the European Union (EU).
Over the course of two days, participants had the opportunity to discuss the challenges that the countries of the Western Balkans face in the process of ensuring the quality of higher education, exchange experiences, and discuss future trends and steps that need to be taken in order to strengthen the quality of culture in higher education.
At the panel discussion on the topic “Building quality culture in higher education”, Danilović pointed out that in establishing an effective system for quality assurance of higher education based on European standards and guidelines (ESG), it is very important to have a clear and precise legislative framework. The existing legal solution does not allow the Agency to apply all European standards and guidelines, and therefore it is necessary to work more intensively on the drafting of a new law, in order to fully apply European practice in the area of quality assurance of higher education, respecting the specificities of national frame. He pointed out that the Agency, until the drafting and adoption of the new legal framework, is patiently working on internal consolidation, and improvement of the procedure, but also on the preparation of an Internal Analysis of the fulfillment of conditions, in order to adequately prepare for the evaluation of the Agency.
Speaking about the challenges, Danilović concluded that the region has common challenges and that it is precisely because of this that it is necessary to work together to improve internal and external mechanisms for ensuring the quality of higher education – through the creation of joint registers of experts, trainings, reliable information systems and databases of evaluated programs and institutions.
The ministerial conference of the countries of the Western Balkans “Quality and quality assurance in higher education – trends and development in the EU and the Western Balkans” resulted in the Western Balkans policy recommendations for quality in higher education, which defines further directions for improving and ensuring quality in higher education in the Western Balkans, in accordance with the obligations of the Bologna process and European standards and guidelines for quality assurance.