As initiated by the Higher Education Accreditation Agency of Republic of Srpska (Agency), there was a meeting held in the Agency for Science and Higher Education (ASHE) on 5th September, 2018 addressing current issues and dilemmas with reference to the recognition of higher education diplomas from Republic of Srpska, accreditation in higher education and general possibilities of cooperation between two agencies.
The meeting was attended by representatives of Higher Education Accreditation Agency of Republic of Srpska: Acting Director Biljana Vojvodic, PhD and the Head of Accreditation Department, Jugoslav Vuk Tepic, PhD; representatives of the Ministry of Education and Culture of Republic of Srpska: Assistant Minister for higher education, Radmila Pejic, PhD and the Secretary of the Republic of Srpska Commission for Information and Recognition of Higher Education Qualifications, Jelena Starcevic, PhD. The meeting was held in a pleasant atmosphere and hosted by: ASHE Director, Jasmina Havranek, PhD, Deputy Director Vesna Dodikovic Jurkovic, PhD and representatives of accreditation sector and ENIC/NARIC centre of Croatia. After the general introduction of both agencies' work, the conversation was directed towards experiences gained after completed processes of accreditation, measures of improvement as well as possibilities of more specific cooperation in the area of external quality assurance.
The mutual readiness to improve the communication between two agencies is one of the results of the meeting and, more importantly for our Agency, there is an open possibility to use ASHE experiences in the process of realising full membership in the European Register and European Association of the quality assurance agencies.
Representatives of ENIC/NARIC Center of Croatia and Commission for Information and Recognition of Higher Education Qualifications of Republic of Srpska have paid special attention to the cases of declined recognition of qualifications awarded by accredited higher education institutions in Republic of Srpska. The topic of discussion were also several instances of diplomas awarded by higher education institutions that were not enlisted in BiH register of accredited higher education institutions kept by Agency for Development of Higher Education and Quality Assurance of BiH (HEA) and those of higher education institutions with initial accreditation.
Representatives of the Agency familiarised colleagues from ASHE that the BiH register is not an updated record of accredited higher education institutions in BiH due to the fact that HEA declines to enlist certain higher education institutions accredited by our Agency.
It was also emphasised that enlisting in the BiH register of accredited higher education institutions cannot be a condition for the recognition of diplomas since HEA is not BiH ENIC/NARIC centre.
After the very thorough argumentation, it is agreed that the Ministry and the Agency should submit detailed elaboration with regards to the accreditation procedures in all higher education systems in BiH and request from ASHE to make amendments in the procedure of checking the status of accredited higher education institutions in Republic of Srpska.
The meeting was finished with the kind invitation to ASHE to visit Banja Luka in the near future.
