Representatives of "Apeiron" at the SMEQA conference, dedicated to the improvement of quality assurance in higher education in BiH

Representatives of "Apeiron" at the SMEQA conference, dedicated to the improvement of quality assurance in higher education in BiH

Representatives of "Apeiron" University participated in the two-day meeting "International Conference on the Key Principles and Elements of the External Evaluation Model in Institutional and Program Accreditation, December 2 and 3 at the Faculty of Political Sciences of the University of Banja Luka.

Elveldina Tatrevic, Assistant Director for Legal Affairs, Maja Dujaković, secretary of the University, Tanja Škorić, member of the project team and expert associate for quality assurance i Dragana Bulut, expert associate for quality assurance, in front of "Apeiron" University, participated in the aforementioned meeting organized as part of the implementation of the Strengthening Capacities and Mechanisms for Enhancement of Quality Assurance System in Higher Education project - SMEQA (Strengthening Capacities and Mechanisms for Enhancement of Quality Assurance System in Higher Education in Bosnia and Herzegovina), in which 19 institutions from RS, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the European Union participate.

According to the participants, the Agency for Higher Education of the Republika Srpska and the Agency for the Development of Higher Education and Quality Assurance of Bosnia and Herzegovina could apply for membership in the European Association for Quality Assurance (ENQA) by the end of next year. Peter Levante Lakatos, member of the ENQA Board of Directors and director of the Accreditation Council of Hungary (MAB), who attended the event, emphasized that this is the goal - the membership of these two agencies. He said that the agencies work diligently to meet the standards and shifts for education at the European level, prescribed by the European Association, which is a condition for the agencies to become full members.

In addition to Lakatos, the event was attended by Aleksandar Šušnjar, director of the European Quality Assurance Register (EQAR), representatives of the Croatian Agency for Science and Higher Education (AZVO), the Slovenian National Agency for Quality in Higher Education (SQAA), the University of Split and the University of Ljubljana. , representatives of institutions in the Republic of Srpska and Bosnia and Herzegovina, competent educational bodies, higher education institutions and other participants in the higher education sector

The report "Analysis of quality assurance in Bosnia and Herzegovina" was presented, as was the presentation of external quality assurance in Croatia and Slovenia.

Based on the discussion and feedback from all interested parties, conclusions were defined in this area, with the aim of improving the model of external quality assurance and accreditation in higher education in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The project "Strengthening capacities and mechanisms for improving the quality assurance system in higher education in Bosnia and Herzegovina" (SMEQA-ERASMUS-EDU-2023-CBHE-STRAND-3) was financed by the European Commission with a planned duration of three years (2024-2026 ). The main coordinator of this project is the University of Zenica.

Seven higher education institutions participate in the project (University of Zenica, University of Banja Luka, Pan-European University "Apeiron" and University of Mostar, University of Sarajevo, University of "Hercegovina" and University of "Vitez"), five relevant ministries (Ministry of Science and Technology Development and higher education of Republika Srpska, Ministry of Science, Higher Education and Youth of Sarajevo Canton, Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of Herzegovina-Neretva Canton, Ministry of education, science, culture and sport of Zenica-Doboj Canton, Ministry of Education, Science, Youth, Culture and Sport of Central Bosnia Canton), Agency for Higher Education of Republika Srpska, Agency for Development of Higher Education and Quality Assurance of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Center for Information and Recognition of higher education documents, and partners from the European Union: Agency for Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Croatia, National Agency for Quality of Higher Education of the Republic of Slovenia, University of Split and University of Ljubljana.