The Agency for Science and Higher Education (ASHE) is the recipient of a grant to implement a project funded by the Efficient Human Resources national programme 2021–2027 of the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+). The project is titled SF.2.4.06.02.0001 Quality Assurance in Higher Education. The Ministry of Science, Education and Youth as Intermediate Body Level 1 and AVETAE DEFCO, the Organizational Unit for Management of Structural Instruments of the European Union as Intermediate Body Level 2 are also involved in the project.
The aim of the project is to ensure the quality and availability of higher education in Croatia by means of enhancing the quality and efficiency of higher education institutions by developing new external evaluation procedures and improving existing ones, as well as strengthening the role of internal quality assurance systems of higher education institutions.
In addition to implementing new models of external evaluation, strengthening internal quality assurance systems, ensuring HEI capacity building, and enhancing internal Agency business processes, the project also envisages the development of a portal to be used in external evaluation procedures in higher education. This will ensure the enhancement and further digitalization of procedures conducted by ASHE. The users of the portal will be ASHE staff, members of ASHE expert bodies, international and Croatian reviewers, and higher education institutions.
The project will also see the production of various guidelines, instructions and educational materials. These will continue to be publicly available on the Agency website, i.e. the project website, once the project is over. At the end of the project, all target groups will enjoy a wealth of knowledge (presentations, studies and reports) as well as detailed information at the national, institutional and programme level, which will aid in strategic and collective decision-making.
The project will see the implementation of the following activities:
- new model of re-accreditation of higher education institutions;
- new models of initial accreditation of study programmes;
- development and implementation of a model of evaluating the implementation of programme agreements;
- participation in national and international quality assurance bodies (ENQA, EQAR, CEENQA, ECA);
- development of a new user portal to be used in conducting external evaluation procedures as well as the integration of existing IT systems/applications in order to further digitalize external evaluation procedures;
- professional development of ASHE staff and members of ASHE expert bodies both in Croatia and abroad in the area of quality assurance in higher education;
- conducting research and analyses in the area of quality assurance in higher education;
- training sessions for higher education institutions.
The project is scheduled to last from October 2023 to September 2029.
More information on the “Quality Assurance in Higher Education” project will be available on the project website.
