CUBRIK will support institutional effectiveness, efficiency and internal governance in SEE Higher Education Institutions. By including universities and national QAA in the region, the outcomes of the action will result in an enhanced capacity in quality assurance in each institution while contributing towards greater coordination. Concretely, the action will increase inter-institutional liaison, networking and sharing of best-practices by the creation of a network of experts. Secondly, it will set up a quality assurance observatory in order to agree on common practices, track the last development and foster benchmarking initiatives. Foster the creation of integral strategies supported by data evidence and based on the constitution of common values. Strengthen capacity building through targeted training programme and improve technical capacity by the conducting external institutional assessment within HEIs. Lastly, the action will widely disseminate project results within SEE institutions. Results from the action will be useful to other quality assurance agencies in the region such as those in BiH, Macedonia and Serbia. Overall, the action will encourage a vigorous and integral External Quality Assurance culture implementation in the SEE higher education institutions. The consortium draws from the pool of European expertise in quality assurance, involving various universities and agencies with complementary skills and as such, featuring the wide range of European excellence in higher education management. The idea for the action is in response to interest from institutions in target region. Indeed many projects have established or are actually establishing internal quality assurance systems but lack the external evaluation framework and regional cooperation focus. The action is a prolongation of two previous Tempus projects CONTINUED Project JEP- 41148-2006 (Serbia) and CREDIT Project SCM-C014A05 (Bosnia and Herzegovina). Exchange of information and ideas about the creation of multiregional project in the Balkans was discussed and supported partnrs Accreditation agencies which inmediatly expressed their willingness to integrate the project. The newly set-up Bosnian Quality Assurance Agencies contact was provided by the Bosnian Tempus Office, quickly they decided to join the project as they are looking for good-practices and international cooperation. In relation to this the development and implementation of a coherent external quality culture within the partner Universities and Quality Assurance Agencies (QAA) will provide a benchmark for further Universities and for the development of a comprehensive quality system in the region and thus strengthen the inter-regional and governmental initiatives. The action responds directly to national priority area and the theme of governance as outlined in this TEMPUS IV Call.
The mani project objectives are:
1-Creation of a quality assurance framework through the development of common QA practices and network at national and regional level
2-Strengthening capacity building through targeted training programme and pilot assessment activities for the external institutional assessment of Universities and Quality Assurance Agencies in Western Balkans
