Completed international projects

European Social Fund

SKAZVO – Improvement of quality assurance and enhancement systems in higher education

ASHE implements the project SKAZVO – Improvement of quality assurance and enhancement systems in higher education (2016-2021) for the purpose of the development of a new model for external quality assurance system in Croatian higher education. The aim of the project is to develop new and improve existing external evaluation of Croatian higher education institutions and study programmes, as well as to improve the quality of study programmes and strengthen the competences of HEI staff. The project will launch new activities such as collecting information and informing the general public about higher education, and develop the counselling services for present and future students.

ERASMUS+

Keep innovation in multi-partnership cooperation in lifelong guidance services (KEEP IN PACT)

The Agency for Science and Higher Education is a partner of the project Keep innovation in multi partnership cooperation in lifelong guidance services (KEEP IN PACT), the general purpose of which is up-skill « multi-partnership management » function « in lifelong career guidance centres.

The project started in September 2019 and it will last until April 2022.

Réseau international des Cités des métiers (France) is a coordinator of the project and partners are Universcience, Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie – Cité des métiers de Paris (France), Learning Digital (Italy), City of Porto – Cidade das profissoes do Porto (Portugal), Lifelong Learning Platform (Belgium) and Agency for Science and Higher Education (Croatia).

Specific objectives of the project are:

Strengthen the quality and quantity of services in lifelong career guidance provided to citizens
Develop competences in multi-partnership management among professionals working in lifelong career guidance centres (directors, project officers, territorial facilitators, partnership managers, career counsellors, trainers/teachers, event managers, etc.
Increase the commitment of stakeholders in the field of digital in lifelong career guidance services
Promote multi-disciplinary and integrated services in lifelong career guidance to public and private policy makers on the territory in the fields of education, training and employment
Develop European network of professionals in multi-partnership management in lifelong career guidance

Key challenges of the project are:

Adapt services to the needs/expectations of clients (students, NEETS, employees, migrants, entrepreneurs, people with disabilities, old workers, etc.)
Increase the place of digital in lifelong career guidance services while building-up new multi partnership cooperation in the field (specific and cross-cutting approach)
Make stakeholders with different interests working together to provide lifelong career guidance services
Trigger mutual added value among stakeholders concerned about professional life
Contribute to the effectiveness of local and regional public policies in the fields of education, vocational training, employment, business development: consistency of initiatives among stakeholders

Automatic Recognition in the Adriatic Region (AdReN)

The general objective of the AdReN project is to support and encourage achieving the goals of the European Education Area, in particular the implementation of the Council recommendation on promoting automatic recognition of higher education and upper secondary diplomas and the outcomes of learning periods abroad.

The scope of the project AdReN is to foster automatic recognition in the Adriatic region, starting from the project partner countries, by achieving the following results:

developed tools to implement the automatic recognition of academic qualifications and qualifications giving access to higher education in partner countries
cooperation among ENIC/NARIC centres, competent authorities for recognition of qualifications, and HEIs in partner countries and in the other countries of the Adriatic region
set up the Secretariat of the AdReN network

The project partners are the NARIC centres of Croatia, Greece, Italy, Slovenia and the IUAV University of Venice, and the activities the project aims at implementing are the drafting of a comprehensive table of comparison of Pre-Bologna and Bologna qualifications (academic qualifications and those giving access to higher education) in partner countries that are referenced to the EHEA Qualifications Framework and the European Qualifications Framework, together with a comparative study of the different higher education systems. As fostering automatic recognition also implies removing the obstacles towards it, the project is going to focus on substantial differences and transnational education in the region.

The project started in 1 June 2020 and it will last until 31 May 2022.

Co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.

STACQ – Stacking credits & the future of the qualification

The NARIC invitation under which this project is submitted, calls for projects that improve the automatic recognition of all forms of learning, including digital and online learning offered by higher education institutions. This is a trend that is posing a challenges for current recognition practices.

The objectives of the project are to:

1. Build an online application to easily evaluate MOOCs.

Stand-alone e-learning outside of the traditional education system (such as MOOCs) gained popularity over the last years, but their evaluation is not easy and time consuming. STACQ aims to develop an evaluation tool, which can help credential evaluators to quickly evaluate a MOOC;

2. Produce a position paper on the future of the qualification

Without a clear profile, seeking recognition of a stack of credits is at odds with current good practice in recognition which is based on coherent qualifications and the five elements in it. This project will revisit what a qualification is in light of the current changing education landscape and what the implications are for current good practice in recognition.

The focus lies on: 1) mapping developments in higher education, 2) analyse different types of modular education and provide examples and 3) reflect on what modular offerings of education means for recognition.

The project includes the following activities to achieve the project goals:

Desk Research, to collect, review and analyse all relevant sources to design the blueprints (WP2)
Two blueprints are produced based on sound desk research (WP 1) that outline the approach and design for the two main deliverables

1) Online application to easily evaluate MOOCs,

2) Produce a position paper on the future of the qualification

A project meeting to kick off the project, reinforce a shared understanding of the project and discuss the draft versions of the blueprints
Producing the actual outcomes using various rounds of consultation
Dissemination of (preliminary) project results in the networks and to relevant stakeholders
Progress of the project according to the project plan is systematically monitored throughout the project by the project coordinator.

Target groups:

ENIC-NARIC centres, LRC Committee Bureau, admissions officers in Higher education institutions (HEI), students, accreditation organizations, online education providers and policy makers.

Impact:

– Provide ENIC-NARIC centres and admissions officers at European HEI with a tool to more efficiently take digital and online learning units into account in their evaluations;

– Contribute to common practice in Europe on the recognition of online learning and lead to more effective recognition practices;

– Enable ENIC-NARIC networks to prepare for the impact of the emergence of learning units on current practices for recognition of foreign qualifications

– Support learning mobility based on new forms of learning in the EU and EHEA.

Croatian Agency for Science and Higher Education is part of STACQ project Steering Group as a representative of ECA (European Consortium for Accreditation in higher education)

Project started in June 2020 and will last until May 2022.

STACQ website

Publication “The Rise and Recognition of Micro-credential – Stacking Modules and the Future of the Qualifications”

Application ‘The Micro-Evaluator’

Online course catalogues and databases for transparency and recognition (OCTRA)

The project addresses priority on reaching automatic recognition by developing practical support to academic recognition and improving links with other stakeholders. The project also addresses the priority of encouraging the automatic recognition of HE qualifications and upper secondary qualifications by strengthening cooperation among NARICs, EQF NCPs and National Europass Centres, as well as elaborating recommendations for further development of existing online national qualifications databases and registers (NQD) to promote their use in a fair recognition.

The project provides support to HEIs and national authorities in developing new and improving existing national guidelines for course catalogues and NQDs, including a flexible and transparent design of study programmes and qualifications based on learning outcomes and ECTS credits, as well as providing relevant recommendations for improvement of these online tools, and improving effective use of ECTS for automatic recognition.

The aim of the project is to increase a dialogue with HEIs by agreeing on a template of course catalogues and improvement of NQDs that would guide to structured and transparent learning outcomes of HE qualifications facilitating the automatic recognition. Linking course catalogues with the NQDs is important since both include similar information on qualifications.

The project partners represent NARICs (Latvia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Croatia, Poland), ENICs (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Russia), HEIs (Latvia), Rectors’ Conference (Latvia), as well as Students’ Union (Latvia) as an associated partner; thus, involving all the relevant stakeholders.

The project activities:

desk research – exploring situation regarding course catalogues of HEIs and NQDs in the NARIC and ENIC project partner countries;
guidelines and recommendations for HEI and NARICs, ECTS Users’ guide (2015) about online course catalogues and NQDs – to provide ideas for necessary improvements of the online tools;
peer-learning seminars – to discuss the guidelines and recommendations with the relevant stakeholders;
national workshops for HEIs – to present the guidelines and recommendations to the representatives of HEIs in the partner countries;
international conference.

Target groups: HEIs, credential evaluators, students, employers, policy makers, EQF NPCs and National Europass Centres.

The guidelines and recommendations elaborated in the project serve as an assisting tool for HEIs to improve or create appropriately useful and consistent course catalogues corresponding to the NQDs (if existing), and for bodies responsible for NQDs to make adaptations in the content useful for credential evaluation. The document is an additional guide to the existing information for transparency of qualifications to ease fair recognition and valuable instrument to support dialogue with HEIs and policy makers regarding automatic recognition. For students improved course catalogues and NQDs will provide structured information on study programmes, which will serve for increasing mobility.

The main impact of the project is foreseen to promote the availability of transparent and structured information about qualifications, study programmes and study courses, which will lead to the automatic recognition of HE qualifications in future and effective use of ECTS for automatic recognition.

Duration of the OCTRA project: 24 months (Start date 1^st June 2020 / End date 31^st May 2022).

Allocating Credit to European Professional Training Programmes (ACEPT)

ACEPT project started in the beginning of year 2018.

Coordinator of the project is UK NARIC , and partners are NARIC Latvia, ENIC Malta, NUFFIC and Croatian ENIC/NARIC office.

ACEPT project focuses on the development of a clear methodology to allocate credit to professional training to support the attainment of the objectives below:

Objectives:

There are two key objectives in the call that this proposal directly addresses:

Substantially enhance the quality and effectiveness of the NARIC network in view of task 2 in the NARIC network mandate “to establish benchmarking, setting best practices, development of methodologies….”.
Aim at implementing priorities in the field of recognition set in the Europe 2020 Strategy, the Strategic Framework for European cooperation in Education and Training 2020 (ET2020) ”at least 40% of people aged 30-34 should have completed some form of higher education”. The renewed EU agenda for higher education and the EHEA (Bologna Process), in particular by taking forward commitments in the Yerevan Communiqué regarding recognition “Making our systems more inclusive is an essential aim for EHEA ..widen participation in higher education and support institutions that provide relevant learning activities in appropriate context for different types of learners, including lifelong learning. We will improve permeability and articulation between different education sectors.”.

Priorities:

Using European tools for recognition and transparency such as the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS)…and promoting closer synergies with similar communities of practice, such as in qualifications frameworks, will support improved, trust-based recognition.
Use of learning outcomes in credential evaluation.
The network should be supported in developing practical improvements to academic recognition that can be used in the network and beyond.

Specific outputs:

Definition of professional training programmes eligible for evaluation
Benchmarking methodology for professional training programmes in relation to academic qualifications
ECTS allocation tool / methodology for professional training programmes

Impact:

A more inclusive system of recognition regardless of education sector as per Yerevan
Increased progression of individuals into higher education.
Improved opportunities for mobility of individuals with professional training.

Database of External Quality Assurance (DEQAR)

The Agency of Science and Higher Education is a partner of the Database of External Quality Assurance (DEQAR) project which is being led by the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education – EQAR.

DEQAR is a two year project, beginning from November 2017 and ending on October 31, 2019, which has the aim of developing a European database with information on the outcome of the evaluation of higher education institutions. The objective of the project is to enhance access to reports and decisions on higher education institutions carried out by EQAR member agencies, thereby increasing transparency in procedures for ensuring the quality of European Higher Education. In addition, it will provide support and meet the needs of users through assistance such as recognition of degrees and mobility of students. The project will be funded by the European Erasmus+ program. The first public preview of the database will be published in May 2018.

The database is expected to benefit a broad range of users including, but not limited to:

Recognition information centres (ENIC-NARICs)
Recognition officers in higher education institutions
Students
Quality assurance agencies
Ministry representatives and other national authorities

In order to combat the difficulties that users frequently face, the Database, once completed, will enable users to identify higher education institutions that have been subject to external quality assurance by EQAR member agencies and allow for simplified access of related external quality assurance reports.

The Agency for Science and Higher Education has been registered at EQAR since November 25 2011 and the EQAR Council Decision on June 20 2017 has renewed its membership.

A detailed description of the timeline is provided in the link: https://www.eqar.eu/topics/deqar.html

MEHR – Modernisation, Education and Human Rights

The 3-year long project starting in September 2016 is building on the work of the ECA (European Consortium for Accreditation in Higher Education) Working Group 4 on the use of learning outcomes and their assessment in accreditation procedures. Learning outcomes now feature in the quality assessment and accreditation procedures for higher education programmes in several countries. Nonetheless, the degree of implementation and embedding of learning outcomes varies widely among countries. Building on evidence-based foundation, the present project intends to develop a Quality Assurance Guide (QUAG) on assessing learning outcomes (focusing specifically on human rights topics). This will enable QAAs to undertake a self-assessment of their performance regarding the assessment of LO on HR in their accreditation practices. The value of the MEHR project resides in its proposed exploration of the QAAs’ attention to the definition and usage of LO of HR in higher education institutions, as revealed by their evaluative practices.

The Project consortium gathers institutions (an agency and a higher education institution) from three European countries of different size, educational traditions and structures of higher education systems as well as different levels of development on LO assessment tools and procedures (Croatia, Portugal, Sweden), and one international organisation located in Belgium (ESIB).

For the participating organisations the project will strengthen their skills in the field of LO assessment on HR; for the research and teaching institutions, the project will correspond to an advance in the state of the art in the field of LO; for QAAs and ECA the production of the “QUAG”, available for member agencies and others will represent a significant step forwards in the development of its mission; the project will also promote the dialogue between national agencies and higher education institutions, enabling the exchange of best practices across cultural contexts, as well as developing suitable methods for comparing practices of LO assessment across Europe, building a better understanding for how Agencies (QAAs) and higher education institutions can improve LO assessment methodologies. https://mehr.azvo.hr/en/

Modernisation of Higher Education Institutions through enhancement of Human Resources Management function – HRMinHEI

ASHE is the project leader of the project HRMinHEI (Modernisation of Higher Education Institutions through enhancement of Human Resources Management function) co-funded by the Erasmus + programme, in partnership with higher education institutions from Croatia and Europe: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Rijeka and College Algebra from Croatia, Danube University Krems from Austria and the University of Tampere from Finland.

The project started in September 2016 and it will last until September 2018. The purpose of the project is the strengthening of Human Resources Management in higher education institutions and the development of innovative self-assessment tools for benchmarking Human Resources Management.

General objectives of the project are: to improve the organizational efficiency and effectiveness of HEIs as well as to increase their global competitiveness; to encourage and improve higher education institutions’ contribution to economic growth and social development by enhancing the quality of human capital development in higher education; to stimulate excellence of European HEIs staff and cooperation with the European Higher Education Area.

The project outputs will be documents and tools that will benefit not only the project partners, but also higher education institutions throughout the entire European Higher Education Area:

Review of national policies on Human Resources Management in European higher education;
Online self-assessment tool as Open Educational Resources (OER) for the purpose of a systematic evaluation and benchmarking of Human Resources Management at European higher education institutions;
Documented Human Resources Management processes developed at HEIs – partners in the project – as a model for other higher education institutions;
Guidelines for the development of the Human Resources Management in HEIs in Croatia, Austria and Finland.

HRMinHEI project complements the main determinants of the Erasmus + programme and the EU Modernization Agenda for Higher Education adopted in 2011.

PROCSEE: Strengthening Professional Higher Education and VET in Central & South Eastern Europe

The EC Communication on “Rethinking Education: Investing in Skills for Better socio-economic outcomes” highlights significant discrepancies between countries across Europe in their development of VET and PHE. It specifically points out that while some European countries have world-class VET and PHE systems, many others, typically in southern Europe, lag behind in terms of participation, quality outcomes and attractiveness.

In countries with developed PHE systems, professional education is characterised by dual systems which have a high proportion of work-based learning, apprenticeships and other models which facilitate transition from learning to work. The communication further points out that excellence in PHE comes from systematically renewed curricula, constantly modernised delivery, and, crucially active involvement of businesses, especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

The differences in development of PHE across Europe is due to differences in socio-cultural traditions and perceptions, diverse structures of education and training systems and of the economy and labour market, reforms undertaken, the extent of involvement of social partners as well as the employment prospects of PHE graduates, and the preferences of individuals. PRO-SEE will set up systematic structures for policy-recommendations and best-practice sharing, focusing on four specific areas:

Alignment of VET with regional/local economic development strategies
Promotion of VET, especially to respond to identified skill shortages
Organising and monitoring student placements in the world of work
Personal Learning Environments and Further Education

By bringing together leading actors in the field from across Europe, educational institutions & companies from SEE and European and Regional policy actors, the project will provide specific policy inputs on how to address these priorities in each participating country as well as across the region.

BuildPHE: Building Professional Higher Education Capacity

The objectives of this project are to:

encourage institutions of professional HE to analyse their internal policies for cooperation between education, research and business
implement improvements and reforms to policies and practices as regards cooperation with the world of work support the sharing of best practices with respect to interventions for strengthening the knowledge triangle
design a set of supporting tools, in particular framework policies and/or implementation guides, to strengthen active cooperation between HEIs and partners from outside academia

The project involves policy- and decision- makers from within institutions of Professional Higher Education, who will collaborate within the structures set up by their national associations for PHE, who are members of the consortium. Through their participation in the project, each of these institutions will analyse their overall connection with the world of work, formulate improvements with the help of best practice in the field and mainstream these practices into institutional strategy.

Recognition of Non-Country Specific Awards (RENSA)

The aim of the RENSA project is the further development and sharing of good practice and information to support fair and, as appropriate, consistent recognition of non-country specific qualifications. In the context of this project, “non-country specific” awards are defined as those which are wholly international, and do not form part of any one national education system. These may include, but are not limited to long-standing qualifications offered by international awarding bodies and increasingly, nationally recognised awarding bodies offering customised international awards which fall outside of the remit of the national regulator. Whilst the European Area of Recognition (EAR) manual provides some helpful chapters that could be adapted and applied in the evaluation of such international credentials (such as the Non-Recognised but Legitimate Institutions chapter), in practice there are no dedicated guidelines of good practice for the evaluation of non-country specific qualifications nor a clear means of sharing and saving examples of recognition decisions taken by NARICs.

Information System On pre-Bologna Academic Qualifications (ISOBAQ)

The objective of the ISOBAQ project is to create and provide to the NARIC network one more recognition tool for enhancing the visibility, comparability, transparency and trust-based fair recognition, which would promote mobility in the field of education and employment. This will be achieved by putting into place of an online information system (OIS) containing as much as possible structured information about the existing national legislation and levelling of the existing pre-Bologna HE qualifications towards the current national HE qualifications, the corresponding NQFs and the Bologna cycles. Such a structured information source could be used for bridging where possible the pre-Bologna HE qualifications towards EQF which would enrich it’s nature a helpful tool for comparison, assessment, fair recognition and transparency, having in mind the lack of/ insufficient information about national levelling and status of this type of HE qualifications. The participating centres will contribute with national details on the legislation concerning their pre-Bologna HE qualifications in the aspects specified above and as a result would benefit from such a structured source both as sending (in terms of origin) authorities and as receiving (recognition) authorities. Samples of the pre-Bologna HE qualifications in question would add value to the final online information system. The added value and benefits will be effective for the whole NARIC network and their ENIC counterparts, which are primary target group. The project will have immediate impact to enhancing the quality and effectiveness of the ENIC-NARIC network to the extent of the participating partner centres, yet it’s open nature will allow further joining and networking of other partner centres with hard to be found national information on their pre-Bologna HE qualifications, which is a logical follow-up beyond the end of the project.

Focus on Automatic Institutional Recognition project (FAIR)

The objective of the Focus on Automatic Institutional Recognition project (FAIR) is to improve European recognition as practiced by higher education institutions by implementing elements of automatic recognition.

Automatic recognition is a fairly new concept that is explored by the ‘pathfinder group on automatic recognition’ in preparation of the Bologna Ministerial Conference in Yerevan 2015.

The measure to be tested is the introduction of automatic recognition in institutional recognition procedures.

FAIR aims to test how the recommendations can best be implemented in institutional recognition practices, making use of the collected good practice of the European Area of Recognition (EAR) manuals.

Automatic recognition is expected to simplify institutional recognition decisions, because substantial parts of the recognition procedure will be standardized.

The experience and recommendations on how to do this at national level will be made available by the FAIR project team for all EHEA countries. This will lead to faster and smoother recognition decisions.

National ENIC/NARIC office of the Agency for Science and Higher Education is one of the partners in this project that is coordinate by the Dutch NUFFIC . The duration of the project was 28 month, and the project ended June 2017.

ERASMUS+ FAIR PROJECT REPORT IS PUBLISHED

On 5th of July 2017 the ERASMUS+ FAIR (Focus on Automatic Institutional Recognition) report with European and national recommendations is published today.

The report here.

The present report reflects the outcomes of the Focus on Automatic Institutional Recognition (FAIR)

project, which was implemented between January 2015 and June 2017 in the framework of the

Erasmus+ Key Action 3 Policy Experimentation call.

This report is the result of a collaborative effort of the 36 partners joined in the FAIR project. These

partners represent higher education institutions and associations, ENIC/NARIC centres and Ministries

The Focus on Automatic Institutional Recognition (FAIR) project aimed to improve recognition of

foreign qualifications, by measuring the impact of introducing both good practice and elements

expected that this could reduce deviations in such procedures and lead to smoother and fairer

recognition decisions across Europe.

Project partners from Croatia were: Agency for Science and Higher Education, Ministry for Science and Education, University of Zagreb, University Josip Juraj Strossmayer Osijek, University of Split and University of Rijeka.

The Report: here

About project:https://www.epnuffic.nl/en/diploma-recognition/fair

Removing obstacles for cross-border cooperation –ROCCO

The project Removing obstacles for cross-border cooperation –ROCCO is funded within the Erasmus + Programme, under the project no. 559195-EPP-1-2014-1-HR-EPPKA3-BOLOGNA, and implemented by the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports in cooperation with the Agency for Science and Higher Education and stakeholders’ representatives in project working groups. The project is aiming at improving conditions for development and accreditation of joint study programmes and contributing to more efficient and fruitful cross-border cooperation of Croatian higher education institutions. More detailed project information is available at the MSES website (attachments are in English).
Final guidelines

The Changing Role of NARICs II: Stakeholder Perspective

The Changing Role of NARICs II: Stakeholder Perspective, as a continuation of the project Changing Role of NARICs I, proposes to build upon the findings of CHARONA I, as well as on the experience of NARIC centres and key stakeholders in the recognition of .

The aim of this project is the development of new International Recognition Guidelines for the recognition of qualifications, acknowledging examples of best practice and the experience of expert practitioners in recognition with particular emphasis on transnational education, non-formal / informal learning, the role of and the use of emerging qualifications frameworks in the process of recognition.

Another goal of this project is to enhance awareness of the EU initiatives amongst stakeholders whilst acknowledging the complex and varying roles of each of the ENIC/NARIC centres. This highlights the added value centres are able to provide for the implementation of the Europe 2020 Strategy.

The holder of this project is UK NARIC, and the Agency’s ENIC/NARIC Office is one of its partners.

The Changing Role of NARICs – a Research Project

The Changing Role of NARICs (CHARONA)

Samples & Copies of Academic National DIPLOMAS – SCAN-DIPLOMAS

National ENIC/NARIC Office of the Agency for Science and Higher Education is a partner in the Samples & Copies of Academic National DIPLOMAS – SCAN-DIPLOMAS project, which is led by NARIC Italia – CIMEA.

The project SCAN-DIPLOMAS aims to collect samples of national degree certificates from participating ENIC-NARIC network members.

With these samples, a final online database will be created and made available as a useful tool for improve fair recognition processes within the whole network.

The diploma samples database would be a useful recognition tool for improving the recognition process:

method of control for diminishing fraud or misunderstandings during the recognition process
source of information for all ENIC and NARIC centres on the national academic qualifications from other countries, which will increase coherence and make processes more transparent.

The project is supposed to last 18 months.
Electronic databases within SCAN – D project has been established

Enhancing the Use of Mobility Tools for Recognition

In line with the Europe 2020 Strategy and the Europe Higher Education Area (Bologna Process), the main objective of the Enhancing the Use of Mobility Tools for Recognition project is to promote the existing European recognition tools and to facilitate academic and professional mobility of students and workers.

The use of the mobility and recognition tools will increase transparency of foreign qualifications and facilitate a fairer recognition, thus enhancing the chances to improve employability across Europe.

The activities within the project will therefore consist of joint face-to-face trainings and transnational seminars for higher education institutions, public administration bodies and employers in the participating countries: Croatia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands and France. The national trainings (theoretical and practical modules) and transnational seminars will aim at promoting and sharing good practices related to the use of the existing mobility and recognition tools, such as the European qualifications framework, national qualification frameworks, Europass, Diploma Supplement, and the EAR-HEI manual.

National ENIC/NARIC Office of the Agency for Science and Higher Education is one of the partners in this project that is coordinate by the French CIEP The duration of the project is two years.

IPA programme

The Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance – IPA is a programme established for the purpose of providing assistance to candidates and potential candidates for the membership in the European Union in performing harmonisation and enforcement of acquis communautaire. The Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) is a pre-accession programme for the period 2007-2013 which has replaced the previous CARDS, Phare, ISPA and SAPARD programmes and it is a preparation for the use of structural funds.

Further development of the Croatian Qualifications Framework

The project lasted from April 2010 to January 2012 and its objective was to continue the development of the Croatian Qualifications Framework and strengthening capacities by examining the existing, and preparing a new legal framework and by developing the methods of training and developing new qualification standards. The project mainly focused on the qualifications in vocational education and ASHE was involved in the implementation of the project in relation to the development of public policies relevant for the subject area and quality assurance in higher education.

Competitive Croatian Higher Education for Better Employment

Within the framework of the IPA tender for grant applications – Further development and the implementation of the Croatian Qualifications Framework – the Agency for Science and Higher Education as a lead partner is implementing the project Competitive Croatian Higher Education for better Employment.

The University of Split and the University College for Applied Computer Engineering are the Agency’s partners in this project.

Project implementation started at the end of August 2013 and it will last for 18 months.

The overall objective of the project is to contribute to the implementation of the Croatian Qualifications Framework (CROQF) and the reform of higher education in Croatia through the development of new qualifications standards and study programmes in the field of physics and information and communications technology. Specific objectives of the project are the development of six qualifications standards and study programmes, including the development of learning outcomes and the evaluation of criteria and procedures, and the presentation of Recognition of Prior Learning –RPL, as an integral part of the CROQF http://rpl.azvo.hr/index.php/hr/.

E-quality: Linking the quality and social inclusion in higher education in Croatia

Within the framework of the IPA tender for grant applications Integration of disadvantaged groups in the regular education system, the Agency for Science and Higher Education participates as a partner in the project E-quality: Linking quality and social inclusion in higher education in Croatia implemented by the Institute for the Development of Education. The project involved the University of Rijeka and the University of Zadar, Polytechnic “Marko Marulić” in Knin, the Institute for Social Research and the Association for the Development of Higher Education “Universitas”. The objectives of the project are to study the needs of disadvantaged groups of students, develop quality assurance processes that would check the fulfilment of their needs and develop a quality label in this area.

Development of the national qualification standard for teachers as a basis for the implementation of a teacher licensing system

Within the framework of the IPA tender for grant applications Further development and implementation of the Croatian Qualifications Framework, the Agency for Science and Higher Education participates in the project Development of the national qualification standard for teachers as the basis for the implementation of a teacher licensing system whose lead beneficiary and partner is the National Centre for External Evaluation of Education. The project partners are the Institute for Social Research in Zagreb, the Faculty of Teacher Education in Zagreb, Elementary school Pučišća, Brač and Agricultural School in Zagreb.

EUROPEAN UNION LIFELONG LEARNING PROGRAMME (LLP)

EQArep

Transparency of European Higher education through Public Quality Assurance Reports – EQArep is a 24-month long project which started in September 2012, coordinated by European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education – ENQA.

The project will map the current publication practices, explore the different needs of stakeholders for transparent and comparable information, develop standards for different types of quality assurance reports in the EHEA and evaluate whether a European template for quality assurance reports is feasible.

The project will result in a recommendation to quality assurance agencies on the content and form of informative and approachable quality assurance reports. Thus the envisaged impact is a higher degree of comparability of quality assurance reports and consequently a better contribution of quality assurance to transparency of higher education at the European level.

Together with ASHE, project partners are quality assurance agencies from Estonia, Ireland and Switzerland. You can find out more about the project on the project weblog.

CeQuInt

Certificate for the Quality of Internationalisation – CeQuInt is an 18-month long project which started in September 2012. Coordinated by European Consortium for Accreditation in higher education – ECA, the project aims to develop a methodology for of the internationalisation of higher education, developing a quality stamp for institutions which managed to develop international exchange and cooperation which benefits their students, staff and local community.

The project involves 12 European quality assurance agencies, coming from Austria, Germany, Slovenia, France, Poland, Spain and Finland, as well as organisations specialising in internationalisation of higher education – ACA and DAAD.

QFs-UHSE

The use or potential use of qualifications frameworks as a tool of mobility by HEIs and other stakeholders is a project of the ASHE ENIC/NARIC Office, coordinated by the French agency CIEP.

In 24 months, from February 2012 to February 2014, the project looks at ways in which transparency tools built in the European higher education reforms, such as diploma supplements and , facilitated qualification recognition, and develop methods for training and informing higher education institutions, employers and hiring agencies to further support labour mobility within Europe.

ENIC CAPACITY BUILDING

As obvious from the title, the project aims at building ENIC capacities in countries from the region, looking into their best practices, developing common recognition methods for third country qualifications, improving the system for detecting false diplomas and developing internal archival and information systems.

The project will last for 24 months, from February 2012 to February 2014.

ASHE is one of the project grantholders, while the project is lead by the United Kingdom NARIC office.

UNESCO GIQAC

ESG Balkans

The project, which lasted for 18 months, until June 2012, and was coordinated by ENQA, aimed at looking into the application of Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG) in the Balkan area, and organising experience exchange among the Balkan agencies. As the only Balkan agency passing through an external evaluation according to the ESG, ASHE presented its work to all partner agencies, organised a workshop in Zagreb and received staff from other agencies as observers during the re-accreditation study visits in 2012. The project results will also be used in the ongoing procedure of amending ESG.

TEMPUS

Enhancing the Mobility of the Croatian Academic Community (MOBIL)

THE GOAL OF THE PROJECT: Enhance the mobility of the Croatian academic community within Europe.
This goal will be achieved by creating a platform for Croatia’s entry into the Community programme for academic mobility, ERASMUS (within the framework of the European Commission’s Lifelong Learning Programme – LLP).

PROJECT DONOR: European Commission, Directorate-General for Education and Culture; TEMPUS SCM Programme

PROJECT DURATION: 15 June 2007 – 14 June 2008

CONSORTIUM:
Project coordinator: Institute for the Development of Education, Croatia
Grantholder: Technische Universität Dresden, Germany

Partner institutions (EU):

University of Ljubljana – Ljubljana (SI)
International Programme Office for Education and Training – Stockholm (SE)
Partner institutions (Republic of Croatia):
Ministry of Science, Education and Sports of the Republic of Croatia
Agency for Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Croatia
Institute for Social Research – Centre for Educational Research and Development
University of Rijeka
University of Osijek
University of Dubrovnik
Zagreb School of Management
Agency for Adult Education of the Republic of Croatia

OFFICIAL WEBSITE: www.iro.hr/mobil

Training for EU-liaison officers in Croatian Universities: pursuing Bologna and EU integration aims (TRIUMPH)

GOAL OF THE PROJECT: Build a network of EU liaison officers in major Croatian universities in order to contribute to the further development of the Bologna Process, higher education and Croatia’s integration in the European Research Area (ERA).

PROJECT DONOR: European Commission, Directorate-General for Education and Culture; TEMPUS SCM Programme

PROJECT DURATION: 15 June 2007 – 14 June 2008

CONSORTIUM:
Project coordinator: European Research and Project Office GmbH – EURICE, Saarbrücken
Grantholder: Universität des Saarlandes, Saarbrücken
Partner institutions (EU):

Universidad de Alicante, Alicante
Partner institutions (Republic of Croatia):
Agency for Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Croatia
Ministry of Science, Education and Sports of the Republic of Croatia
National Foundation for Science, Higher Education and Technological Development of the Republic of Croatia
University of Dubrovnik
University of Rijeka
University of Split
University of Zadar
University of Zagreb

Quality Assurance in University Teaching (Full Ahead)

GOAL OF THE PROJECT was to encourage participation in active learning, self-learning, introducing pedagogy in teaching, assessment and learning styles and to promote critical thinking in teaching.
Three documents were produced in the course of the project:
1. Code of best practices in teaching and knowledge assessment,
2. National strategy for evaluating teaching efficiency,
3. The action research programme for improving teaching quality (a plan for professional development of teachers).

DONOR: European Commission, Directorate-General for Education and Culture; TEMPUS SCM Programme

PROJECT DURATION: 15 October 10 2006 – 14 October 2007

CONSORTIUM:
Project coordinator: University of Rijeka
Grantholder: University of Ljubljana (SI)

Partner institutions (EU):

University of East Anglia (UK)
University of Linz (AT) – Individual expert

Partner institutions (Republic of Croatia):

University of Zadar
University of Split
University of Dubrovnik
Ministry of Science, Education and Sports of the Republic of Croatia
Agency for Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Croatia

OFFICIAL WEBSITE: http://www.pfri.hr/tempus-qa/

TAIEX

TAIEX (Technical Assistance and Information Exchange) a European Union programme aimed at providing short-term technical assistance with regard to approximation, implementation and enforcement of EU legislation.
TAIEX provides five main services: documentation, information and advice on legislation; workshops and seminars; study visits to the European Commission and Member States; expertise to advise the beneficiary countries and, finally, databases on the deployment and results of technical assistance provided.

Six projects within the framework of TAIEX programme were granted to the Agency for Science and Higher Education, which aim at:

The development of the Agency for Science and Higher Education;
Exchanging information on the recognition of foreign higher education qualifications;
Enhancing the practice of recognition of foreign higher education qualifications;
Establishing stronger cooperation with foreign institutions operating in the system of higher education, in particular the National Information Centres (ENIC-NARIC);
Obtaining information on foreign practices of recognition of professional qualifications and the manner of implementation of the requirements of Directive 2005/36/EC;
Aligning Croatian legislation on recognition of professional qualifications with the requirements of Directive 2005/36/EC and creating adequate institutional and administrative preconditions for implementation;
Professional development of employees of the Agency for Science and Higher Education.

Recognition of foreign higher education qualifications – study visit, Bonn, the Federal Republic of Germany

Representatives of the Croatian ENIC/NARIC Office of the Agency for Science and Higher Education visited German higher education institutions as part of a study visit to Bonn, undertaken from 9 to 12 October 2007 and hosted by the German National Information Centre (ZAB-Zentralstelle für ausländisches Bildungswesen im Sekretariat der Ständigen Konferenz der Kultusminister der Länder in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland).

During the study visit, they met with the representatives of the German National Information Centre, the German Rector’s Conference (HRK-Hochschulrektorenkonferenz) and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD-Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienst).

Capacity building for the development of quality assurance system at higher education institutions in the Republic of Croatia –foreign expert’s visit

The Agency for Science and Higher Education was visited by Alan Hunt, an expert in academic development and quality at the University of Bournemouth, on 19 – 23 November 2007.
When developing an application for this TAIEX project, the Agency was guided by the idea that, after establishing quality assurance units at higher education institutions, linking them and providing higher education institutions with basic information and examples of best practices related to the internal audit of the quality assurance system, the next step towards establishing an independent external audit of the quality assurance system that the Agency must take will be to organize training for representatives of academia, business community and students, which will then carry out such audit as audit panels at higher education institutions.

Recognition of foreign higher education qualifications – study visit to Madrid, the Kingdom of Spain

Representatives of the Croatian ENIC/NARIC Office of the Agency for Science and Higher Education visited Spanish higher education institutions as part of the study visit to Madrid, the Kingdom of Spain, from 5 to 8 May 2008, which was hosted by the Spanish National Information Centre (NARIC España) of the Spanish Ministry of Education (Ministerio de Educación).

During the study visit, the representatives of the Croatian ENIC/NARIC Office held a meeting with the representatives of the Spanish Ministry of Education (Ministerio de Educación) and the representatives of two educational institutions – the University of Alcalá (Universidad de Alcalá), one of the oldest universities in Europe, and Puerta Bonita, a vocational training institute in the field of audio-visual design.

Recognition of foreign higher education qualifications – study visit to Vienna, the Republic of Austria

Representatives of the National ENIC/NARIC Office of the Agency for Science and Higher Education visited the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research (Bundesministerium für Wissenschaft und Forschung) and the Austrian National Information Centre (ENIC NARIC AUSTRIA) of the Ministry, from 7 to 11 July 2008.

During the study visit, the representatives of the Croatian ENIC/NARIC Office also visited three higher education institutions (Diplomatische Akademie Wien, Fachhochschule Wiener Neustadt, Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien) and participated in the meeting with representatives of different regulated professions in the Republic of Austria.

Study visit to the Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovations

Representatives of the Department of Science of the Agency for Science and Higher Education visited the Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation, Danish National Research Foundation and Danish National Research Foundation Centre for Viscous Liquid Dynamics at IMFUFA – Roskilde University΄s Department of Mathematics and Physics from 10 to 14 November 2008.

During the study visit, the representatives of the Department of Science collected valuable information on the organization of scientific activity in Denmark and its bodies, the financing and establishment of centres of scientific excellence and evaluating research projects.

Recognition of foreign higher education qualifications – study visit of foreign experts

As part of the project which was implemented in cooperation with the British National Information Centre (UK NARIC), the Agency for Science and Higher Education was visited by the representative of UK NARIC Ms Kate Bellamy, and Mr Howard Davis, senior adviser at the European University Association (EUA) and expert in EU legislation and the Bologna Process, on 21 – 22 April 2009. They presented the examples of best practices of recognition of professional qualifications and the implementation and enforcement of Directive 2005/36/EC.

As with the Croatia’s accession to the European Union, the Croatian ENIC/NARIC Office should take over the role of the National Contact Point in the meaning of Directive 2005/36/EC, this project helped in further training the employees of the Croatian ENIC/NARIC Office on the said Directive.

MPAP 2006

Within MATRA MPAP pre-accession projects programme of the government of the Netherlands, the Agency for Science and Higher Education took part in the project Strengthening the role of the Croatian ENIC/NARIC Office as the lead beneficiary, with the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports and the Ministry of Economy, Labour and Entrepreneurship as partners.
Implementation of the project Strengthening the role of the Croatian ENIC/NARIC Office started on 29 January 2007 and it ended with the closing conference on 11 November 2008.
The goal of the project was training and directing information on the recognition of professional qualifications to the relevant ministries, chambers, professional organizations, etc. as well as disseminating information on professional and academic recognition of foreign higher education qualifications. The project aimed at contributing to the harmonization of Croatian legislation in the field of recognition of qualifications with the requirements of Directive 2005/36/EC, and creating administrative and institutional preconditions for implementing relevant regulations.

As one of the goals of the project, proposals were given for defining the National Contact Point, that is, the national coordinator, within the meaning of Directive 2005/36/EC. One of the project outputs was the development of an IT application, the National database on the recognition of professional qualifications, which would be used in the provision of information on regulated professions in the Republic of Croatia and would also be a technical tool for administering the information on the procedures for recognition of professional qualifications in the Republic of Croatia.

Documents

CARDS 2003

As part of the CARDS programme for 2003, the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports received funding for the project of introduction of a quality assurance system in higher education and harmonization of higher education institutions’ information systems with the higher education systems in place in the EU Member States (the so-called HEMIS – Higher Education Management Information System). The legal basis for the implementation of the project is provided by the Act on Scientific Activity and Higher Education (OG 123/03), while the the Agency for Science and Higher Education provided the institutional framework. The project implementation is based on the Terms of Reference whose final version was made in August 2005. The project started on 4 September 2006 and will last for 18 months, with a total budget of EUR 600,000.
The project of the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports funded by the European Union: Furtherance of the Agency for Science and Higher Education (ASHE) in its Quality Assurance role and the development of a supporting Information System.

” href=”http://www.gopa.de/croatia-HEMIS”>www.gopa.de/croatia-HEMIS

Cooperation with CARDS 2003 project

Higher Education Information Systems and AZVO

System Specifications CNHIS

Final report QA

Croatia HEMIS Inception Report

CARDS 2002

Within the CARDS 2002 programme, the project of recognition of foreign educational qualifications was granted to the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports (Higher Education Mobility: Diploma Recognition Policy and Legislation). The project implementation was based on the Terms of Reference approved by the European Commission Delegation to RC in February 2003. The legal framework for the project implementation was the Act on the recognition of foreign educational qualifications (OG 158/03 and 198/03), and the institutional framework was presented by the Croatian ENIC/NARIC Office for the recognition of diplomas established at the Agency for Science and Higher Education.

The project started in May 2004 and ended in March 2006 with a total budget of EUR 600,000.

Through the joint project implementation unit, the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports (Project Beneficiary) and the Agency for Science and Higher Education (Final Beneficiary) ensured and monitored the implementation of the project with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, the Ministry of Finance and the Delegation of the European Commission, taking into account proposals of all interested stakeholders.

CARDS documents

CARDS presentations

CARDS brochures

Other programmes

Ensuring Access to Croatian Public e-services within e-Citizens Platform for EU/EEA citizens – CEF eID

As member of the consortium coordinated by the Ministry of Public Administration of the Republic of Croatia, ASHE participates in the project Ensuring Access to Croatian Public e-services within e-Citizens Platform for EU/EEA citizens. The Croatian consortium submitted the application for the public call CEF-TC-2015 eIdentification of the European Commission (INEA), and the project was selected for funding.

ASHE participates in the project in the part relating to applications for study programmes through the National System of Applications to Graduate Studies (NISpDS), which falls within the scope of work of the Central Applications Office. The project aims to enable applicants to study programmes who are nationals of EU member states to apply for study programmes in the same way as their Croatian counterparts, i.e. through the Central Government portal e-Citizens, which reduces administration work and costs of application.

Implementation of the project started in June 2016 and ends in June 2017.