DEVELOPED QUALITY STANDARDS WILL IMPROVE HIGHER EDUCATION

Reform activities implemented by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development (MoESTD) in cooperation with the National Accreditation and Quality Assurance Body (NAB) and other actors in higher education, with the support of the European Union (EU) through the REdiS 2030 project were the subject of the public consultations on the quality of higher education and compliance with European quality standards. The aim of these activities is to improve the quality assurance system in higher education and its harmonization with quality standards in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA).

"The standards we worked on in the previous period are extremely important for raising the quality of higher education, and the ones we are most proud of and adopted this year are the standards that enable the accreditation of higher dual education, academic and vocational," said MoESTD State Secretary, prof. Dr.Marijana Dukić Mijatović. Speaking about the return of full membership in the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA), the State Secretary stated that to this end, amendments to the Law on Higher Education were adopted and novelties were introduced that create favourable conditions for further work and development of NAB and harmonization with European standards and guidelines in quality assurance in higher education (ESG). Assistant Ministers Dr. Aleksandar Jovic and Prof. Dr. Bojan Tubić presented to the participants in more detail the changes introduced by the amendments to the law and their relationship with ESG standards.

The State Secretary thanked the European Union, as the most important partner of Serbia in the reform process, for the support it provides in the field of harmonization of quality standards. The representative of the EU Delegation to Serbia, Martin Klaucke, emphasized that the time of low-educated workforce has passed. "We need better education, we need to invest more in science and higher education. Standards and regulations have been developed in the European Union as guidelines for EU countries on how to ensure the quality of higher education. Such guidelines govern quality assurance processes, by introducing levels of credibility across Europe. In order to achieve that, public consultations are an extremely important tool for developing mutual understanding and reaching consensus, "Klaucke said. "ENQA has encouraged the National Accreditation Body of Serbia and other institutions to continue to improve the quality assurance system at all levels. I am glad to see that the Serbian authorities have taken these recommendations very seriously - on the one hand, fundamental work has been done with the recent adoption of amendments to the legislation (the Law on Higher Education). But now it is necessary to provide more concrete steps for the operationalization of these recommendations ", stated Klaucke in his introductory address. He is expecting that Serbia is preparing for the next ENQA panel and that NAB is working on harmonization with European standards while respecting our socio-cultural specifics.

Representatives of all bodies in charge for making decisions on the fulfilment of quality standards as the basis for accreditation of higher education institutions, participated in the public consultations. Representatives of the NAB, the National Council for Higher Education and the Commission for Accreditation and Quality Assurance (CAQA) agreed that the amendments to the law improved administrative procedures, but that work was still needed to return to full ENQA membership.

The experts of the REdiS 2030 project conducted detailed analysis and elaborated key issues of harmonization with the EHEA. One of the results of this work is the proposal of the developed United Quality Standards in Higher Education, which were presented to the participants. Prof. dr. Milorad Milovancevic, President of the Steering Committee of NAB, stressed the importance of the contribution of the Redis project, the analysis, recommendations and new standards done so far.

Due to the epidemiological situation, the consultations were held in a hybrid form, which did not affect the liveliness and quality of the discussion, judging by the number of comments, proposals and suggestions sent by those present in the hall, but also by participants who followed the event online. The presentations encouraged the participants to open topics related to the equality of public and private universities in the process of accreditation, selection, training and position of reviewers, development of pedagogical competencies of teachers in higher education, development of a stimulating environment for learning in higher education institutions and other.