News

As a part of the preparation of the Higher Education Accreditation Agency of Republika Srpska (Agency) for full membership of the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) a day long supervisory visit took place on the 31^st May 2019. This was the monitoring visit with regards to the implementation of recommendations made in the 2017 report of the panel of experts.

The supervisory visit was conducted by Stephen Jackson and Djurdjica Dragojevic, two of four members of the panel of experts who visited the Agency in 2017 and wrote a report on the Agency's compliance with the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG). This report also contains recommendations for improvement.

During their visit, Jackson and Dragojevic toured the new premises of the Agency, and spoke with members of the Agency’s Steering Board of, as well as with management and employees of the Agency on the accreditation of study programs, student involvement in quality assurance, complaints procedures, independence of the Agency's work, thematic analyses of accreditation processes and higher education systems, resources, internal quality assurance and other topics relevant for the work of the Agency.

The overall impression of the supervisory visit is that significant progress has been made in the meantime and that, within a relatively short period of time, almost all the recommendations of the ENQA Panel of Experts have been implemented.

The monitoring visit aims to help the Agency to present the activities started and implemented in order to fully harmonize its activities with the ESG, thus creating the preconditions for the successful achievement of full membership in ENQA.

Head of the Department for Quality Assurance and International Cooperation, Duska Radmanovic participated in the work of the 9^th Forum of European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) members, which was held in Tallinn, Estonia, from 25^th to 26^th April 2019. The meeting was organized by the Estonian Quality Agency for Higher and Vocational Education (EKKA).

The forum was dedicated to current issues in the field of higher education in the European Higher Education Area, and special discussions were devoted to the issues of external evaluation of quality assurance agencies, and to the ENQA Strategic Plan for 2021-2025.

The Higher Education Accreditation Agency of Republic of Srpska has been an associate member of ENQA since 2018 and is in the process of preparing to become a full member.

During the meeting, a number of contacts were made with agencies from other countries such as Poland, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands, thus creating conditions for taking over good European practices of complex countries.

At the annual meeting of the Central and Eastern European Network of Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education (CEENQA), held in late April 2019 in Kyrenia, Northern Cyprus, Head of Department for Quality Assurance and International Cooperation, Duska Radmanovic was elected as a member of the Network's Executive Board.

Radmanovic was elected to be a member of the Executive Board for the second time after her first term of two years expired. She has also served as Vice President of CEENQA and is responsible for the implementation of staff exchange program between member agencies for over two years within the Executive Board.

The Higher Education Accreditation Agency of Republika Srpska puts significant efforts in professional development of its employees, which is recognized by partner agencies from international networks.

Currently, there are 35 member agencies in CEENQA from more than 20 countries in Europe.

The Steering Board of Agency has adopted an information on current events regarding the accreditation of higher education institutions in Republic of Srpska. Other issues related to the work of the Agency were also discussed at the session.