Belgrade: WUS Austria proudly announces that the “Crystal Award” for best youth project in Serbia in 2009 was given to the Zoran Djindjic Fund for “Experiencing Europe - Serbian Young Serbian Professionals in Austria - Zoran Đinđić Internship Program”, a project that is designed and implemented under the auspices of the Dr. Zoran Đinđić Fund, prepared and implemented by WUS Austria, and financed by the ADC (Austrian Development Cooperation).

“Experiencing Europe: Serbian Young Professionals in Austria – Zoran Đinđić Internship Programme” aims at supporting the socio-economic development of Serbia by increasing the employability of the Serbian youth on the one hand and the understanding of European integration on the other.

43 different projects had applied for this award. The decisive factor for selecting “Experiencing Europe” was, according to the chairman of the jury, Danilo Milić, Olf Palme Centre Coordinator for Serbia, that the project promotes cooperation and contributions of individuals, civil society organi zations, institutions and the business sector, as well as international cooperation.

The “Cristal Award” is provided by Olof Palme International Centre, Stari Grad Municipality, Berlit z Language School, the Agency for Cooperation with NGOs and European Integration, the Belgrade Office for Youth and the Ministry for Youth and Sports.

Prishtina. Within the project: “Cross Sector Internship Program”, which is financed by USAID/KPEP, and implemented by WUS Austria, Prishtina Office, one-day training seminar was held for forty interns who conduct their internships at different public and non-public institutions of Kosovo. The topics of the one-day training were:

·         “Academic and Business Writing” and

·         “Presentation Skills”.

The Academic and Business writing part of the training aimed to prepare interns for: academic essay writing; the process of writing in its different stages (planning, drafting, revising and proofreading); techniques of quotation and bibliography composition; within the section business writing the attention was focused on: writing effective business Emails; how to write formal and professional Emails, how to make a good first impression and how to avoid the undermining of excellent work or idea by poor communication.

The second part of the training, Presentation Skills, was focused on: identifying essential elements of an effective presentation; describing challenges and benefits of effective speaking skills; listing the elements of a successful presentations and delineate types and methods of presentations.

During the training students showed a great interest, and raised important and interesting questions about the topics at hand.

Podgorica. One-day training seminar on Teaching Skills named “Designing and Structuring Courses and Communication Skills” was held on 10^th of March 2010 at the premises of the Rectorate of the University of Montenegro. It is the first out of three one-day seminars on Teaching Skills that will be organized within the “Quality Assurance Project”.

Director of the QA Center at the University of Montenegro, Professor Mitar Misovic was the moderator at the seminar held by the EU expert Monika Heis, the guest lecturer at the Faculty of Philosophy in Niksic. The seminar was attended by the vice deans for teaching of all faculties of the University of Montenegro, as well as the members of the quality assurance

EU expert Monika Heis presented goals in teaching, definition of teaching, methods of teaching, aspects of communication related to teaching etc. all of which is supposed to help in raising quality of teaching at the University of Montenegro.

The seminar was attended by the director of the QA Center at the University of Montenegro Professor Mitar Misovic and around twenty participants of the University staff and professors. A number of questions were raised and issues on designing and structuring courses and communication skills discussed.

“Designing and Structuring Courses and Communication Skills” seminar was organized as one of the activities which are intended to take place under the programme „Support to Higher Education in Montenegro 2007-2010“ financed by the Austrian Development Cooperation. Next seminar focusing on teaching skills will take place on 23^rd of April 2010.

Agenda of the seminar can be downloaded here.

WUS Austria Sarajevo Office is proud to announce that the contract for the implementation of the project “Development of Information System forQuality Assurance – DISQA” within the project “Strategic and Structural Development of Quality Assurance in Bosnian-Herzegovinian Higher Education in 2008-2010” has been signed on March 9, 2010 at the University of Mostar.

At the Selection Commission meeting for the Implementation of Specific QA Measures at BH universities, implemented as a second component within WUS Austria’s project“Strategic and Structural Development of Quality Assurance in BH Higher Education 2008-2010” financed by Austrian Development Cooperation and Liechtenstein Government, which was held on December 7, 2009 in Sarajevo, 3project proposals were approved.  One of the approved projects is the joint project between the University of Zenica and University of Mostar, entitled “Development of Information System for Quality Assurance – DISQA”, with the maximum granted budget of 69.158,00 EUR and one year duration.

The overall objective of the project is to further develop quality assurance systems at the University of Mostar and the University of Zenica through the establishment of an information system for quality assurance, which will be based on agreed key indicators. The project aims at giving support to the development of processes, procedures, systems and structures of quality assurance which will initiate and establish quality of higher education offered to students.

The contract was signed by MSc Dino Mujkic (Regional Manager) on behalf of WUS Austria as the Contracting Authority, dr. Vlado Majstorovic (Rector) on behalf of the University of Mostar as the Contractor and dr. Sabahudin Ekinovic (Rector) on behalf of the University of Zenica as the Subcontractor. The signing of the contract marks the beginning of the project implementation.

Mostar. WUS Austria is proud to announce that the 2^nd DDS seminar "Promotion of Doctoral Studies" was successfully held on March 11-12, 2010 at the Hotel Ero in Mostar.

The seminar Promotion of Doctoral Studies is the second seminar organized within the Degree Development Structure (DDS) project, which is being implemented within the programme “Austrian Support to Higher Education in Bosnia and Herzegovina 2008-2011”, financed by Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC).

WUS Austria considers that there is a great need for more intensive promotion of the doctoral education among BiH academic community, having in mind that:

1. the main aim of development of the third cycle education in line with the Bologna principles is the building of a knowledge/innovation-driven economy based on the need for a knowledge-based society in the broadest sense,
2. the doctoral education has been part of the Bologna process from the 2003 Berlin Communiqué and it has been considered as an increasing priority ever since,
3. BiH higher education institutions are still highly lagging behind their European counterparts when it comes to the development of the third cycle education, etc.

Therefore, the main aim of the seminar was promotion of the doctoral education among BiH academic community, and it focused on emphasizing and discussing the importance of the third cycle studies and quality assurance in new-style doctoral studies, since the high quality doctoral education is a key to strengthening research capacity and competitiveness of each country.

The main seminar topics covered and the invited lecturers were as follows:

• Presentation of third cycle doctoral studies “PhD in ICT” at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Banja Luka by dipl. oec. Ahmet Mehić, Scientific Associate at the University of Paderborn (The study programme PhD in ICT is being developed within the DDS project by the twinning partnership between the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Banja Luka and the University of Paderborn.)

• Introduction to the latest trends in 3rd cycle studies in Europe by dr. Lucas Zinner, Head of the Center for Doctoral Studies, University of Vienna
• Doctoral education at the University of Paderborn, Germany by dipl. oec. Ahmet Mehić, Scientific Associate at the University of Paderborn
• Doctoral education at the University of Manchester, Great Britain by dr. Maria Nedeva, Senior Lecturer, Manchester Business School, University of Manchester
• Doctoral education at the University of Graz, Austria by MMag. Regina Ressler, Deputy Head of Department for Educational and Student Services, University of Graz
• Doctoral education at the University of Alicante, Spain by Prof. Covadonga Ordonez Garcia, Administrative Manager of the Language Center of the University of Alicante
• Quality Assurance in Doctoral Studies by dr. Maria Nedeva, Senior Lecturer, Manchester Business School, University of Manchester
• Linking of HE and economy-related to the third cycle by MMag. Reinhard Millner, Teaching and Research Associate, Non-profit Management Group, Department for Management, Vienna University of Economics and Business

*(The full seminar Agenda, as well as all the presentations, can be downloaded by clicking on the hyperlinks.)

The seminar was open to the wider academic community in BiH, and was attended by over 70 participants. They were mostly academic staff directly involved in implementation of the DDS project. Additionally, it was attended by professors, lecturers, teaching assistants, and university management representatives from public universities in BiH, as well as by representatives of cantonal ministries of education, Agency for Development of Higher Education and Quality Assurance BiH, and the media.  

WUS Austria prepared a questionnaire to assess satisfaction of the seminar participants in terms of the seminar organisation, topics and lecturers. The questionnaire results showed that all the participants expressed their sincere satisfaction with the overall organisation of the seminar.

Additionally, the participants were asked to express their views on which further steps are needed for successful introduction and/or improvement of study programmes within the third cycle. Majority of the participants think that further steps should be cooperation with other higher education institutions and countries from the region, intensifying cooperation with economy and improvement of the surrounding on the economic level, linking economy and market needs, financial support, consideration of the needs for teaching and insistence on research, etc.

Podgorica – The goal of the final workshop on implementation of Quality Assurance System at the University of Montenegro was to present experiences in implementation of the Quality Assurance System at the universities in Austria, give comparison with the University of Montenegro and discuss relevant issues which will be reflected in the QA guidelines. The workshop took place on 14^th June 2010 at the Rectorate building of the University of Montenegro.

Participants of the workshop were members of the Steering Board, extended Rector’s Collegium, QA team and members of the Student Parliament of the University of Montenegro. Professor Dietmar Brodel, who is the Rector of Carinthia University of Applied Sciences and Dean of the School of Management, gave his introductory presentation covering the following topics: enrolment of students, internship and practical work, teaching materials and their adjustments, student workload, and professor workload, mostly focusing on experiences of the Carinthia University of Applied Sciences and other Austrian universities.

Professor Brodel`s presentation was followed up by the presentation of Professor Zoran Veljovic, Professor Dragoslav Nenezic and Professor Aleksandar Vujovic of the University of Montenegro who delivered the presentations on the teaching materials, internships and workload of professors and students at the University of Montenegro for the purpose of comparison with the experiences at the universities in Austria and in order to entice discussion. The final presentation on the principles and regulations which underpin the enrolment of students at the University of Montenegro was given by Professor Mitar Misovic, Director of the Quality Assurance Centre.

The discussion mostly focused around contested issues such as frequency and justification for the adjustment of teaching material, internships and practical work as integral components of study programmes, workload of professors and their other duties, and selection and quality of students as well as the number of students which should be allowed for enrollment in order to preserve/enhance quality of teaching and learning at faculties.

The agenda of the workshop can be downloaded here.

Evaluation of the seminar can be found here.

The participants were also welcomed by Ms. Jasmin Moser, Program Coordinator of WUS – Austria, dr. Miso Dokmanovic, Local coordinator of WUS – Austriain Macedonia, Ms. Susanne Schmid, Counselor at the Austrian embassy in Skopje and Mr. Damijan Sedar, Political advisor at the EU Delegation in Skopje.

Macedonia Case Challenge 2010 was organized from 26 – 27 March 2010 in Skopje in cooperation with the Institute for Strategic Research and Education – ISIE, Parliament of the Republic of Macedonia, Next sense (business and IT case sponsor), Austrian airlines, VIP mobile, Business Start – up center of the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, EU info center, USAID Competitiveness Project etc.      

Kiev. The Kiev Chamber of Commerce was the hosting institution for the kick-off meeting that took place in the frame of the Tempusproject “UNI4INNO”, which is coordinated by University of Alicante, on February 23^rd, 2010.

The European project UNI4INNO (“ Boosting the Knowledge Triangle by Establishing Innovation Offices in Ukrainian Higher Education Institutions”) was launched on 23rd of February 2010 at the Kiev Chamber of Commerce. The UNI4INNO is a three year project funded with the support of the European Commission within the frameworkof the TEMPUS program. The University of Alicante Spain) is the project´s coordinator. WUS Austria is project partner besides Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden), University of Bologna (Italy), the core beneficiaries consisting of 6 Ukrainian universities (Crimean University of the Humanities, Donbass State Engineering Academy, Lviv Polytechnic National University, National Aerospace University, National Metallurgical Academy of Ukraine and Odessa I.I Mechnikov National University), the Kiev Chamber of Commerce, the Ukrainian State Institute of Innovation Technologies and Content of Education and the Ministry of Educationand Science of the Ukraine.

Representatives from the partner institutions were present at the kick off meeting in Kiev, which was also attended by coordinators from the Ukrainian National Tempus Office. The main objectives and expected outcomes of the project were presented, as well as the financial and administrative issues and the work plan for the first project year. Every partner in attendance shared their experiences and needs with regards to institutional innovation support structures, as well as their commitment to the project´s activities.

The UNI4INNO project objectives are to sustainably strengthen strategic, managerial andadministrative capacities of 6 Ukrainian universities in identifying, managing and generating value from their intangible assets, and enhancing participation in cooperative research activities,through implementation of a series of targeted capacity building measures. In addition, the project intends to promote the Innovation culture within Ukrainian Higher Education Institutions through the establishment and implementation of innovation offices and innovation support services. The methodology applied to achieve the envisaged outputs is reinforced by the substantial expertise of the European partners in this field and the strength and combination of the Ukrainian partners, involving relevant government authorities, the business sector, and other associated institutions.

The role of WUS Austria in this project focuses on providing inputs for trainings and strategy development, conducting quality control and sharing experiences capacity/institutional building, linking HE and economy and knowledge transfer as well as lessons learned from similar projects (e.g. R&D Capacities, www.rd-capacities.org) or initiatives.

Once again, WUS Austria wants to thank all involved partner for their valuable contributions and especially the University of Alicante and the Kiev Chamber of Commerce respectively its staff for their professional organisation, very heartily welcome and generous hospitality. WUS Austria is very much looking forward to a fruitful cooperation with all partners within and beyondt his interesting and challenging project.

If you want to know more about this Tempus Project, please visit www.uni4inno.eu.

Contacts:

WUS Austria: Clemens Juriga (clemens.juriga@wus-austria.org)

Coordinators/University of Alicante: with Roberto Escarré (r.escarre@ua.es), María Barluenga (barluenga@ua.es) and Nadejda Patras (nadia.patras@ua.es) from the International Project Management Office of UA

WUS Austria Sarajevo Office is proud to announce that the contracts for the implementation of the projects “Establishing of Quality Assurance System Auditing Practice at the University of East Sarajevo and University of Banja Luka - QASAP” and "Information System for Support of Internal Quality Assurance at the Universities of Tuzla and "Dzemal Bijedic" of Mostar - QA InfoSys”, within the project “Strategic and Structural Development of Quality Assurance in Bosnian-Herzegovinian Higher Education in 2008-2011”, have been signed on April 1, 2010 at the University of East Sarajevo, and April 8, 2010 at the University of Tuzla.

The two projects are among the three selected at the Selection Commission meeting for the Implementation of Specific QA Measures at BH Universities, implemented as a second component within WUS Austria’s project “Strategicand Structural Development of Quality Assurance in BH Higher Education 2008-2011”, financed by Austrian Development Cooperation and Liechtenstein Government.

The project entitled “Establishing of Quality Assurance System Auditing Practice at the University of East Sarajevo and University of Banja Luka - QASAP”, with the maximum granted budget of 49.228,3 EUR and one year duration, is the joint project between the University of East Sarajevo and the University of Banja Luka. The main aim of the project is to provide improvement of the existing systems at the University of East Sarajevo and the University of Banja Luka, and examination of system functioning by certified experts-examiners. The project has a double effect; it includes, at the same time, improvement of quality assurance systems and development of internal auditors who will check the functioning of the quality assurance systems.

Hence, the contract was signed by MSc Dino Mujkic (Regional Manager) on behalf of WUS Austria as the Contracting Authority, dr. Mitar Novakovic (Rector) on behalf of the University of East Sarajevo as the Contractor and dr. Stanko Stanic (Rector) on behalf of the University of Banja Luka as the Subcontractor.

The joint project between the University of Tuzla and the University “Dzemal Bijedic” of Mostar, entitled "Information System for Support of Internal Quality Assurance at the Universities of Tuzla and "Dzemal Bijedic" of Mostar - QA InfoSys” was granted the maximum budget of 61.642,73 EUR. The main proposed outcomes of the project that are to be achieved in a one-year period are creation of the efficient information system for internal quality assurance at the University of Tuzla and the University “Dzemal Bijedic” of  Mostar, which would establish a unique system of collecting quality parameters, increase the level of accessibility of relevant data for all the users in the process and establish a unique data base that would function as a system for monitoring quality parameters at the University of Tuzla and the University “Dzemal Bijedic” of Mostar.

The contract for the implementation of this project was signed by MSc Dino Mujkic (Regional Manager) on behalf of WUS Austria as the Contracting Authority, dr. Dzemo Tufekcic (Rector) on behalf of the University of Tuzla as the Contractor and dr. Suzana Bubic (Rector) on behalf of the University “Dzemal Bijedic” of Mostar as the Subcontractor.

The signing of the contracts marks the beginning of the implementation of the two projects.

Podgorica. Considering the fact that WUS Austria, in partnership with the University of Montenegro, is implementing the Quality Assurance (QA) project in order to build up institutional mechanisms in accordance with modern practice and EU standards and contribute to improved university management, a workshop on which some of the controversial topics present in the area of quality assurance were discussed, was held on 9^thof April in the Rectorate building. Agenda of the workshop is available here.

The participants who attended the workshop were members of the Governing Board, extended Rector’s Collegium, members of the team for implementation of QA, and representatives of the Student Parliament.

Expert of WUS Austria was Professor Roland Arrich who presented the experiences in implementation of quality assurance system at the Universities in Austria. He also made a comparison with the University of Montenegro and gave some ideas for adoption of guidelines for future tasks. Presentations of Professor Arrich were related to PDCA cycles (Plan – Do – Check – Act), newrole and new power of the Governing Board and Councils), new ways of cooperation between the Rectorate and faculties, consequences for study programmes and research and development, student evaluations, internal and external evaluation, and an example for an external evaluation: “PEER REVIEW”. Prof Arrich’s presentation is available here.

For the purpose of discussion, representatives of the University of Montenegro also had prepared presentations. Those were presentations of Prof. dr Predrag Mijanovic, Prof. dr. Nenad Soskic, Prof. dr Drazen Cerovic, and of MA Marija Ivanovic.

Prof. dr Mitar Misovic gave presentation on external evaluation and re-accreditation which was followed up by discussion. The discussion was mainly focused on controversial topics such as: Governing Board and the Councils who are authorized to adopt strategic decisions that are binding for the management of the University and faculties, cooperation between Rectorate and faculties, division of finances, study programmes, and the attitude of students towards studying.

Many useful conclusions were brought at the workshop and future collaboration with professor Arrich has been arranged which in the time to come will most definitely be beneficial for the University of Montenegro.

Evaluation results

Vienna. This years finals of the BCC took place last week from 6th-9th of July in Vienna.The BCC has a long history full of stories of high potential individuals, anecdotes and successes. In the past 10 years, the project has undergone a lot of changes, especially with regard to the geographic and the thematic focus - students from 12 countries were eligible to apply to participate in four different academic disciplines.

The anniversary year started with a very promising number of applications (more than 800 students submitted their application, 30% more than in the previous years) and of participants in the sub-competitions: More than 400 highly motivated students took part. Therefore, it was decided to also accept  more participants for the international finals in Vienna (148 in total). 

The Career Day South-Eastern Europe was organized for the fourth time together with Austrian Trade and was co-financed by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Economy, Family and Youth.  In the evening the BCC was officially opened with a ceremony in the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

On July 6, a conference took place in the Diplomatic Academy on the topic "Linking Higher Education and Economy" with stakeholders from SEE universities, student organizations as well as Austrian experts in this field. The days 3 and 4 were dedicated to the competitions for which the winners were announced during the Awarding Ceremony on July 9. Finally,the whole group went directly to Studio 44 for dinner and to enjoy the concert of RAMBO AMADEUS who brought a special guest: Leroy Emanuel, the guitarist of James Brown. This party was a tremendous success and can therefore be considered as a worthy closing for the BCC10*.

WUS Austria would like to thank all participants for their dedication, ambition and excellent work, all partners and sponsors for their support, all jury members, judges and case creators for their contribution and finally all staff members for a year of hard and devoted work.

Photos and the clip will  be available soon on http://www.bcchallenge.org.

Read more about the BCC 2010 in the eBCC Newsletter July II/2010!

Prishtina. WUS Austria Office in Prishtina in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology of the Republic of Kosova (MESTK) organized the training seminar in Prishtina during July 7^th-8^th, 2010.

Understanding the joint degree concept and its development, and the role of Higher Education System in the Economic Development of Kosova, were the main topics elaborated during this seminar.

The seminar started at 10.00 o’clock, on July 7^th with the speeches

delivered by:

·         Prof. Dr. Muje Rugova, Rector of the University of Prishtina

·         Prof. Dr. Avdulla Alija, Director of Higher Education Department at the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology of the Republic of Kosova

·         Christian Geosits, Austrian Development Cooperation

·         But Dedaj, WUS Austria Office in Prishtina

During the opening speech, Prof. Dr. Muje Rugova, Rector of the University of Prishtina stated the importance of organizing such events as a contribution on the development of the Higher Education System. Further he stated:”This seminar will be very useful in giving us the feedback for improving the quality and developing new programs in our university”.

Prof. Dr. Avdulla Alija, Director of the Higher Education at the MESTK, presented that the seminar topic is decided jointly with WUS and MESTK, and it represents a strategic interest of development of the future study programs in the Higher Education System. In addition, it aligns with the second phase (2010-2015) of the “Strategy for Development of Higher Education in Kosova 2005 – 2015”. This, way, development of joint programs represents the future development of the entire Kosova Higher Education System.

Christian Geosits, from the Austrian Development Cooperation, emphasized the great contribution and investments that the Austrian Government is donating in developing the Higher Education in Kosova.

At the end of the opening session But Dedaj from WUS Austria, Prishtina Office welcomed the participants.

The Two-days training seminar consisted of presentations and workshop part. Topics of the seminar were presented by the following international and national experts:

1.     Higher Education in Kosova, Priorities and Challenges  – Prof. Dr. Avdulla Alija , Director of Higher Education Department at the MESTK

2.     The role of TEMPUS for Joint Degrees – Kimete Canaj, Coordinator Kosovo TEMPUS Office

3.     Linkage between Higher Education and Research in Kosova - Dukagjin Pupovci, KEC

4.     NARIC Kosova -  Mirsade Voca & Qamile Sinanaj

5.     Introduction to Joint Degrees – general principles, Tia Loukkola, European University Association (EUA)

6.     Recommendations of the European University Association developed for the planning of a new joint degree as well as for internal QA of a degree - Tia Loukkola, European University Association (EUA)

7.     Legal tools for joint programs - Heinz Kasparovsky, ENIC NARIC AUSTRIA

8.     Joint degrees – a challenge for quality assurance, Elisabeth Fiorioli, Austrian Accreditation Council

Discussions during the presentation rounds and workshops led in drawing up very important conclusions, which will be forwarded to the decision-making bodies of the Higher Education System of Kosova.

In the event were invited Management of the UP (Rector & vice rectors, deans & vice deans), 17 officers of the Office for Academic Development, CDP+ & MSDP professors, EU-LER coordinators, Head of ENIC NARIC offices in the Region (Montenegro, Serbia, Macedonia & BiH), ENIC NARIC Kosova, TEMPUS Office in Kosova, Kosova Accreditation Agency etc. Number of participants was around 40.

The seminar was implemented in the frame of WUS Austria project “Support to Higher Education in Kosova 2008 – 2010”, financed by the Austrian Development Cooperation, and took place at the premises of the MESTK. The seminar was co-financed by the MESTK. 

Available for download:

Agenda

Evaluation results

It is our great pleasure to inform all interested public universities in Serbia that WUS Austria has launched an open call for Brain Gain Program Plus applications. Serbian faculties are welcome to invite guest lecturers from all over the world (originating from Serbia and former Yugoslavia) to deliver courses for their students at graduate, master and doctoral level.  This action will be implemented within the one-year extension of the ongoing “Support to HE in Serbia 2007-2010” project financed by Austrian Development Cooperation.

PROJECT BACKGROUND AND DESCRIPTION

Within the Brain Gain Program plus (BGP+) faculties/universities from Serbia can invite professors, assistants or experts in relevant fields originating from Serbia/former Yugoslavia to teach as guest lecturers, participate in research and development, and mentor student theses. There are two different possibilities:

BGP+ Classic (the supported period of stay should be between 1 and 3 weeks with at least 15 teaching hours per week), and

BGP+ with extended period of stay (the supported period of stay is the whole semester, and the lecturer is obliged to take over theses mentoring. A guest lecturer can a) take over the full teaching workload– at least 10 teaching hours per week - and mentoring, or b) half teaching workload – at least 5 teaching hours per week – and research and mentoring.)

This type of international scientific exchange and cooperation is not only considered to be important for the development of the universities in SEE, it also has a "brain gain effect", although it is not targeted at the final return of the emigrated academics. Nevertheless, the Brain Gain Program is foreseen as a very effective mean to link these guest researchers/lecturer to already existing networks in SEE and make them a driving force of knowledge transfer and quality assurance.

Through the grant of the Austrian Development Cooperation WUS Austria is providing funding to enable universities to invite qualified academics originating from the region to give lectures, which are not covered at the SEE faculties, or to conduct or participate in a specific research project. For the enhanced cooperation between Austrian institutions and the universities in SEE, regardless of their citizenship lecturers/researchers from the Austrian universities are eligible for the BGP+.

WUS Austria will cover travel costs (up to EUR 800) and an allowance (EUR 500 per week in BGP+ Classic, or EUR 4000 per semester in BGP + with extended period of stay).

Co-financing by the faculty: accommodation of the guest lecturer

The application documentation consists of:

1. Application Form: All applicants are required to complete the application form. Please read the Instructions thoroughly, since it contains advice on completing the application form.

2. CV of the guest lecturer together with the list of publications.

You can download relevant documents at www.wus-austria.org/project/0/21.html, section "For Serbia".

Application deadline: at least a month before the foreseen course

The completed application form needs to be submitted to WUS Austria Belgrade Office BOTH in electronic form and in hardcopy:

1. hardcopy (mail) to:

    WUS Austria Belgrade Office

   Deligradska 22, IV sprat, 11 000 Beograd, Srbija

2. electronic form (e-mail) to:

   belgrade@wus-austria.org 

It is our great pleasure to inform all interested public universities in Serbia that WUS Austria has launched an open call for project proposals. Serbian universities are invited to propose labor market oriented modules, which are parts of already accredited study programs at master level.  This action will be implemented within the one-year extension of the ongoing “Support to HE in Serbia 2007-2010” project financed by Austrian Development Cooperation.

PROJECT BACKGROUND AND DESCRIPTION

In the last three years, WUS Austria has been actively supporting development of six labor market oriented study programs at universities in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Kragujevac and Novi Pazar (at master level) covering specific scientific fields, including regional development, university management, electrical engineering, environmental protection in agriculture etc. After having very good experiences with involvement of not only faculties’ and universities’ authorities and governmental institutions, but local labor market partners as well, and having in mind actual needs of Serbian universities in the scope of the ongoing HE reform, WUS Austria decided to slightly modify the MSDP program. Only development of single modules as integral parts of Master study programs will be supported (and by module we mean min. 3 and max. 7 courses). One faculty can apply for the development of several modules (but that means that you should fill-in as many applications as many modules you want to apply for).

This project will focus on:

Strategic support to the development of master programs focusing on (1) labor market demands resulting in practical application of knowledge, (2) Life Long Learning through contemporary educational technologies and methodologies, (3) cooperation with Austrian Universities, (4) Brain Gain effect

Improved curricula in terms of content and methodology

Establishing the connection between universities and the labor market (capacity building for universities to adapt to the needs of the labor market)

Teacher training activities for the introduction of lifelong learning (LLL) concept

Production of teaching material

Modernization of the infrastructure

Motivation of the universities / faculties for more cooperation and networking

The program supports interested faculties adjusting existing Master programs by introducing new or modifying existing modules, the graduates of which are the most needed at the local labor market.

Special effort will be put on developing study modules especially relevant to the labor market and that these modules are adaptable to the needs of LLL. Ideally, in accordance with concrete needs, those modules will be open to the wider public – for adults and students of other faculties wishing to gain qualifications from certain modules.

There are various means of support within this program:

study visits to the relevant EU universities

obtaining of the up-to-date scientific literature

organization of the seminars and teacher training activities

obtaining of the equipment

honoraria for project coordinator and course lecturers

Important notice: EU (preferably Austrian) university partner is a must, as well as a local labor market partner (company, agency, cluster, governmental or non-governmental institution)

Minimum co-financing: printing of the scripts for each course and 50% of total equipment value.

Project timeframe: September 2010 – June 2011

The application documentation consists of:

1. Application Form: All applicants are required to complete the application form.

2. Budget: All applicants are required to complete the budget. 

3. Guide for Applicants: All applicants should read the Instructions thoroughly, since it contains advice on completing the application form.

Application deadline: September 15, 2010

The completed application form needs to be submitted to WUS Austria Belgrade Office BOTH in electronic form and in hardcopy:

1. hardcopy (mail) to:

    WUS Austria Belgrade Office

   Deligradska 22, IV sprat, 11 000 Beograd, Srbija

2. electronic form (e-mail) to:

    belgrade@wus-austria.org 

Prishtina. The daily newspaper “Zëri” published  an interview with the Regional Manager of WUS Austria, Prishtina office, Mr. But Dedaj. The interview was focused on the “Cross–Sector Internship Program” which is sponsored by USAID/KPEP and implemented by WUS Austria. The project gives 40 students of the University of Prishtina the opportunity to do internships in various public and private Institutions:  4 Ministries, 6 Municipalities and the Chamber of Commerce of Kosovo.

Mr. Dedaj mentioned, among others, the fact that overall 400 students applied to be part of the program; after they were interviewed by the panel, 40 of them were selected for the internships. “The internship of students in institutions and companies creates the possibility of identifying employees and managers who could work for these institutions in the future ”, he said. In the meantime WUS Austria during the project implementation phase also provides trainings for the interns , with the aim of preparing them for their future professional life. “Two conferences were held with the purpose of raising awareness that this form of cooperation and this form of internship for students needs to become obligatory”, said Mr. Dedaj.

Prishtina. The daily newspaper “Zёri”, after an interview with the Regional Manager of  WUS Austria, Prishtina office, Mr. But Dedaj, presented the activities which WUS Austria carries out in order to improve the quality of teaching and implement new programs at the University of Prishtina in accordance with European standards.

 Mr. Dedaj, amongst other things, mentioned the contribution of WUS – through Brain Gain Program – who bring many experts living abroad, from academic and non-academic institutions to Kosovo to hold lectures at the UP.

”Under his management, within the Course Development Program Plus, 80 subjects have been included in curricula of UP and over 30 laboratories and different equipment are now hosted at the UP. The 80 professors who implement these subjects brought their experiences and new scientific methodology gained in different institutions outside of Kosovo”. This process contributes to the internationalization of the UP, mentioned the newspaper “Zёri”.

Prishtina. The National Team of Higher Education Reform Experts in Kosovo was elected. The experts were nominated by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology of Kosovo (MEST) and the University of Prishtina (UP) and endorsed by the European Commission Liaison Office in Kosovo.The composition of the HERE team in Kosovo is as follows:  

• Mr. Dukagjin Pupovci, University Professor and Executive Director of Kosovo Education Center (KEC);
• Mr. But Dedaj, University Professor and Director of World University Service (WUS);
• Mr. Avdulla Alija, University Professor and Head of Higher Education Department, Ministry of Education, Science and Technology;
• Mr. Bajram Berisha, University Professor and Vice Rector for Teaching and Scientific Research, University of Prishtina;
• Mr. Naser Mrasori, University Professor and Vice Rector for International Relations, University of Prishtina.

Oxford. The famous English University of Oxford was the hosting institution for a project meeting and several workshops that took place in the frame of the Tempus IV project “Creating R&D Capacities” from the 22nd to the 23rd March 2010 in the honorable university town in Oxfordshire.

The town of Oxford hosts one of the most respected and well known universities in England, not to say in Europe. In a city where nearly every single building has a long standing history and tradition the preconditions for knowledge transfer and experience exchange couldn’t be any better. The Tempus IV Project “Creating R&D Capacities and Instruments for boosting Higher Education Economy Co-operations” was the reason why partners from all over Europe (Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy, Kosovo, Macedonia and Montenegro) attended a project meeting at the University of Oxford.

This project meeting opened up the possibilities for all involved partners to meet each other once more after a conference held in Sarajevo half a year ago and to discuss and plan the next step for the project implementation activities. Consequently the first day of the meeting was used to update all partners on the results that have been achieved so far. For instance, a self-assessment report on the current R&D situation at each Partner Country University had been successfully conducted and finalized. So called R&D Service Center Manger, the persons who are responsible to develop and implement a coherent R&D strategy at their university, had been hired at the four Partner Country Universities (University of Montenegro, University of Prishtina, University of Sarajevo as well as the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje).  Furthermore, several training visits and workshops lead by EU experts for the R&D Service Center staff had been conducted so far.

But the meeting in Oxford was not only used to discuss and wrap-up past activities, it also enabled the project partners to plan concrete next steps: The project implementation phase now calls for the development of appropriate services and instruments for the R&D Service Centers and their staff. Therefore the second day of the meeting was held in the form of workshops that addressed topics such as networking activities with important stakeholders (e.g. other universities and the industry), the development of a R&D database as well as of appropriate consultancy, fundraising and project management skills. These workshops proved to be a real success that shed precise work plans on the next activities that ought to be undertaken in the coming year of the project implementation.

Drawing from an evaluation conducted in the course of the meeting it can be said that a vast majority of the project partners were highly satisfied with the results of the meeting and the different workshops. The meeting not only gave all partners an update about the progress of the overall project but also fixed the next steps that will have to be undertaken. Furthermore, it opened up the possibility to exchange experiences and elaborate together new ideas for the implementation of the project.

Once again, WUS Austria wants to thank all involved partner for their valuable contributions to the meeting and their commitment to push the project further. Besides, WUS Austria especially wants to thank the University of Oxford and its staff for their very heartily welcome and their generous hospitality.

If you like to know more about the Tempus Project “R&D Capacities” and its aims and goals please visit the project’s webpage here.

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and WUS Austria, in cooperation with local and European partners, held the “Kick-off” and consortium meeting of the project: "Support and Development of Structures for Quality Assurance in Private Institutions of Higher Education" 159051-TEMPUS-1-2009-1-AT-SMGR (Grant Agreement 2009-4862), supported by TEMPUS program, funded by European Commission.

The main objective of the project is the improvement of the Quality Assurance system at the Private Higher Education Institutions of Kosovo, according to the goals of the ‘Strategy for Higher Education 2005 – 2015’, Bologna Process and recommendations of the Kosovo Accreditation Project Report.

Beneficiates of the project are 10 Private Institutions of Higher Education of the Republic of Kosovo. The project will be implemented with the expertise offered by well known European Universities in the field of Quality Assurance: the University of Salzburg, University College Cork, Ireland, University POLITEHNICA in Bucharest, WUS Austria, and with the strategic support of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology of Republic of Kosovo and Kosovo Accreditation Agency.

Enver Hoxhaj, Minister of Education, Science and Technology of Kosova, among others, emphasized that: “this TEMPUS Project, which is first in this field implemented in Kosova, is very important because it makes possible to develop structures and mechanisms that the Quality Assurance at your institutions to be not only requirement of Law on Higher Education, Ministry of Education, Kosovo citizens, but to be something that you set yourself as a goal to be reached in order to be able offering study programs which will be competitive and comparable with those offered in Europe”.    

But Dedaj, Regional Manager of WUS Austria, explained the importance that this project has for Private Higher Education Institution in Kosovo:”we worked together with the University of Salzburg to develop this project which will contribute to the development of quality of studies offered by IPHE in Kosovo”.

European Commission Representative in Kosovo, Sophie Beamount, said that this project will directly help students, but also Kosovo's economy. In addition to this, she mentionied that the aim of this project is to offer to students the opportunity to get qualitative studies form all Higher Education Institutions in Kosova.

On the other hand, the representative of the University of Salzburg, Prof. Dr. Peter Eckl, stressed out the importance of this Project on increasing the quality of studies at Private Higher Education in Kosova.  

Institutions that benefited from this Project are:

·         AAB-Riinvest College;

·         Business Institute;

·         College-Dardania;

·         Higher Professional School – Evolution;

·         College-FAMA;

·         College-ILIRIA;

·         Pjeter Budi Institute;

·         Higher Professional School –Tempulli;

·         College UBT and

·         Universum Institute.

The project “PATTERNS Lectures”, financed by the ERSTE Foundation and implemented by WUS Austria, aims at the development of new university courses in the fields of art history, cultural studies and cultural sciences.

An international call for the submission of course proposals, aimed at the target region of the ERSTE Foundation’s PATTERNS Program, was announced on January 7, encouraging lecturers from universities from South-Eastern, Eastern and Central Europe to submit their course proposals. After the call closed on March 7, we were delighted to count 61 high quality applications from 19 different countries.

The Academic Advisory Panel consisting of international experts met in Vienna on April 8 and selected 16 outstanding courses that will be supported in scope of the PATTERNS Lectures project and will be implemented at the respective universities in the academic year 2010/2011.  

For more details and for alist of the selected proposals, please see the project website.

Podgorica. The workshop on IT support in teaching and presentation skills was held within the Quality Assurance Projection 23 April 2010.  This was the second out of three planned workshops on methods and techniques of teaching. The workshop was led by Professor Karl Kaser from the Centre for Southeast European History of the University of Graz.

The seminar was intended to be practice oriented so each participant had shown great interest and involvement. Professor Kaser had two sessions of lectures which were followed-up by practical work. First lecture was related to Power Point presentations - how, where and in which way they can be used, and the other part of the seminar was dedicated to Moodle programme - a Course Management System also known as Learning Management System or a Virtual Learning Environment.

When speaking of Power Point use Professor Kaser mostly focused on its use in lectures. A Power Point presentation has to be built one slide at a time. The focus of this segment was on how to make a power point presentation interesting, effective and memorable. After the introductory part on Power Point, the practical work followed where participants posed questions to Prof. Kaser and where they were actively engaged in practical session.

During the second session while speaking of Moodle, Profesor Kaser stated that it has many features typical ofan e-learning platform, plus some original innovations (like its filtering system), and that Moodle can be used in many types of environments such as in education, training and development, and business settings. He stressed that learners (and not just teachers) can contribute to the educational experience through Moodle. This segment of the seminar was also followed up by practical work of the participants and their questions related to this programme.

The participants of the workshop were vice deans for teaching and members of the Quality Assurance team of the University of Montenegro.

Agenda of the seminar is available here.

Evaluation results can be downloaded here.

Opening Ceremony, trainings, competition in four disciplines, Recruitment Night, and the Awarding Ceremony were held at the American University in Kosovo. The participants of the Kosova Case Challenge 2010 were welcomed by Prof. Dr. Avdulla Alija, Director of the Higher Education Department, Prof. Dr. Lulzim Pllana, Director of the Office for International Relations, Mr. Hubert Beidinger, Consul of the Austrian Embassy in Prishtina, Mr.Christian Geosits, Director of the Austrian Development Cooperation, Mr. David Cowles, Chief of Party of the KPEP USAID, Mr. Executive Director of DUKAGJINI Insurance Company, Mr. But Dedaj, Regional Manager of WUS Austria Prishtina Office and Ms. Luljeta Aliu BCC Local Coordinator in Kosova.

This time KCC was supported by 2 case sponsors: USAID KPEP for Business Case Competition and DUKAGJINI Insurance Company for ICT Case Competition and 10 other partners.

Training part intended to provide students with necessary skills on presentation, career planning, and for competing disciplines. Trainings were delivered by distinguished trainers.

Top 34 students of the Higher Education in Kosova competed in four different disciplines: USAID KPEP Business Case Competition, Dukagjini Information Communication Technology Case Competition, Law Moot Court and Model European Council. Business Case Competition was supported from Kosovo Private Enterprise Program with the financial support of the USAID, and the ICT Case Competition was supported by Dukagjini Insurance Company. Students in all disciplines competed through the case study method. 

The jury panels consisted of renowned professors, representatives of the companies, institutions, and international organization. They selected finalists for the international case study completion BCC in Vienna.

Recruitment Night was organized before the finalist’s announcement. Different companies had the possibility to meet the informal part of the participants. The students had the possibility to discuss with the employers career opportunities within at their organizations or companies. 

Kosova Case challenge was organized for the sixth time in Kosova, when more than 350 students participated in this project.

Prishtina. Cross Sector Internship Program is a project of Kosovo Private Enterprise Program financed by the USAID and implemented by WUS Austria.

The Cross Sector Internship Program is designed to provide students with an opportunity to apply classroom learning in the work place and gain practical employment experience.

The internship will help students discover their major field of interest, and also clarify the specific job in which they would like to be employed. The internship will also offer employers a preview of prospective candidates for employment. Enthusiasm and dedication in the internship not only enhances the candidates’ academic program, but also could affect their job search after graduation.

The Cross Sector Internship Program will be conducted in close cooperation with the Faculty of Economics, Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Prishtina (UP), Ministries of the Government of Kosova and private organizations. The program is financed by USAID Kosovo Private Enterprise Program (KPEP) and implemented by WUS Austria.

In order to participate in the internship following conditions must be fulfilled:

• To be a last (or second) year student at the Faculty of Economy, Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Engineering of University of Prishtina.
• Enthusiastic in learning new things;
• Ability to work in groups and under the time pressure;
• Participating in activities outside the formal education and the knowledge of foreign languages are considered as an advantage.

Which are the steps to follow for submission of the application form?

To apply for this internship program you should:

• Fill the application form (you may download the application by clicking here, or ask for application via email: prishtina@wus-austria.org);
• Submit the Confirmation of Studies that proves that you are a student of the respective university

When and where?

The deadline for application is: June 04

Application form and accompanying documents can be submitted until June 04 to this email address: prishtina@wus-austria.org, or directly to the office of WUS Austria Office in Prishtina: Faculty of Philology, Str. Nena Tereze, n.n., 10000 Prishtinë, Republic of Kosova. Tel/Fax: 00381 38 241 472.

WUS Austria has been contracted by the USAID KPEP to implement the project. Duration of the project is seven months.

The application announcement is available also in Albanian language.

Podgorica Sabine Pawischitz from the University of Vienna held a seminar on teaching skills, related to the methods and types of teaching performance, mentorship and evaluation, on 12 and 13 May 2010 at the Rectorate of the University of Montenegro.

Ms Pawischitz focused the first day of the seminar on anxiety and conflicts in teaching. It has been discussed that both teachers and students feel anxiety and that it can be overcome in various ways. There was also discussion about the conflicts in teaching process, types of conflicts and how they can be resolved. The first day of the seminar also focused on video analysis, which has become a field of research insocial studies over the last 30 years and which can be used as a successful tool for improving teaching. It enriches the style of teaching and provides possibility for an objective assessment of one’s teaching.

During the second day of the workshop EU expert and representative of faculties of the University of Montenegro discussed the topic of seminar papers, Masters and PhD thesis writing and mentorship and possible problems such as: copywriting and plagiarism. Ms Pawischitz pointed out certain standards that are adopted in Austria and EU regarding scientific papers writing. After the discussion Ms. Pawischitz gave an idea that a catalogue of criteria for writing scientific papers could be made at the University of Montenegro.

New forms and procedures governing evaluation of teaching by students and professors of the University of Montenegro were presented by ProfessorMitar Misovic, Director of the Quality Assurance Centre. This was coupled with EU examples of internal evaluation procedures provided by Ms Pawischitz. Finally, the discussion produced some new ideas which may be included during the finalisation of the evaluation documents.

The agenda of the seminar can be found here.

Evaluation of the seminar can be found here.

In scope of the PATTERNS Lectures project the lecturers of the 16 selected courses met in Vienna to present their proposals and to discuss their ideas in front of each other and of the Academic Advisory Panel. Four representatives of the Culture Programme of ERSTE Foundation, which initiated this project, participated in the meeting as well.

The PATTERNS Lectures project aims at the development of new university courses in the fields of art history, cultural studies and cultural sciences. An international jury selected 16 outstanding course concepts in April, which will be implemented in the course of the next academic year.

The kick-off meeting was an opportunity for the lecturers to meet each other, discuss their proposals and ideas and get valuable inputs from their colleagues as well as from experts from the field.

The meeting was described by all participants as very insightful, productive and useful. The lecturers are now ready to continue working on their proposals – to go through the next steps of revision and improvement in order to have them ready for implementation by the beginning of the next academic year.

For further information about the project please see the project website (www.wus-austria.org/patterns_lectures).

Prishtina. On May 21, 2010 WUS Austria together with the University of Prishtina launched one of the biggest projects on higher education in Kosovo – the Kosovo Interdisciplinary Knowledge Triangle Centre (KIKT). Prof  Dr. Shemsedin Dreshaj, coordinator of the project at the University of Prishtina, moderated the Kick-off Meeting that was attended by representatives of the national TEMPUS office in Kosovo, the University of Prishtina Medical Faculty, the Ghent University, Austin Pock + Partners and WUS Austria. The overall objective of the project is to improve the conditions for the development of professional research capacities and PhD study programmes for the medical and natural sciences at the University of Prishtina. The project is a further step in contributing to the reformation and development of higher education in Kosovo linking the country with professionals and experts from all around the world.

During the last weeks the staff of the WUS Austria Head Office in Graz has enjoyed three internal trainings with lecturers from the FH Joanneum in Graz: “Effective Presentation”,"Intercultural Communication” and “International  Negotiations”. The next training session will be held on "Quality Assurance and Quality Management".

Podgorica. Quality Assurance workshop was held at the Rectorate building of the University of Montenegro on 28^thof May 2010. The guest speakers were Professor Ossi Lindqvist from the University of Eastern Finland and Assistant Professor Markus Hollerer from the Institute for Public Management, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.

In his first presentation, Professor Lindqvist focused on connection of the university with the labour market as one of the key QA instruments. As a rector of the University in Kupio for two mandates in the 1990s he established successful collaboration with Nokia, the world-wide known company for which University in Kupio educated future employees. Professor Lindqvist pointed out different ways of cooperation (direct contractwith a company/organisation, indirect contract with a company/organisation involving a buffer organisation, such as TAEKES in Finland, selling laboratory space, information, etc.) and mostly focused on experiences he had throughout his long and rich career.

The second presentation was provided by Assistant Professor Markus Hollerer who came in the role of the EU expert for Accompanying Measures within the Balkan Case Challenge. He focused on linking higher education with businesses and how that is done in Austria, more precisely, on introducing internships into curricula. He highlighted what are the benefits for both universities and business; for students those are: employability, learning opportunities and contacts with practitioners and future employers; for the university: access to market and establishing contacts, reputation rankings, and sources of funding; and for business: recruiting, employer branding and knowledge renewal.

Finally, Professor Lindqvist spoke on the ENQA Standards but also presented how external evaluation of HEIs is performed inFinland. The organisation which is responsible for the external evaluation of higher education institutions in Finland is the Finnish Higher Education Evaluation Council (FINHEEC), which has adopted a quality audit, types of procedures and started working in 2005. Professor Lindqvist is also a member of the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR) Appeals Committee.

Presentations provoked a number of questions by the participants of the workshops, deans, vice-deans and QAteam member and created a lively discussion on the presented topics/issues.

Agenda of the workshop can be found here.

The workshop “Linking Higher Education and Economy. Various Forms of Cooperation between Universities and Business: Best Practices, Experiences and Cases from Macedonia and Austria” was organized at the biggest University in South Western Macedonia – St. Kliment Ohridski University in particular at the Faculty of administration and management of information systems – Bitola on 28 May 2010.Over 20 Teaching and Research Assistants and Professors attended the workshop.

The participants were welcomed by prof. dr. Violeta Manevska, Dean of FAMIS – Bitola and Dr. Miso Dokmanovic, coordinator of WUS-Austria in Macedonia.The workshop included lectures by Mimoza Jovanovska – Bogdanovska, Teaching Assistant at FAMIS and Reinhard Millner, Lecturer at the Institute for Non-profit Management, WU Vienna University for Business and Economics. Besides that, a presentation by Mr. Georg Woschnagg (Product Marketing Manager, VIP operator) on the practical side of establishment of linkage between higher education and business was a part of the workshop program.

Theworkshop was organized by WUS – Austriain cooperation with the local partner, Institute for Strategic Research andEducation – ISIE.

The workshop was opened by Mr. Sc. But Dedaj, Prishtina WUS Austria Regional Manager, who, among others, stressed out the efforts and challenges that the UP is facing in adopting contemporary teaching methods and trends. Additionally, he mentioned the importance of finding proper routs to stimulate the cooperation between the Faculties and the businesses and the benefits from this cooperation.

Prof. Dr. Ferdije Zhushi-Etemi, Director of Kosovar Accreditation Agency and Professor at the Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Prishtina, in her presentation “Local Experiences on Contemporary Teaching & Learning Methods”  pointed out to some of the teaching methods that are  used by the UP`s teachers including other methods that are effective to be used in the future; the possibilities and importance of using the different sources during teaching and learning process. “This should be a lifelong process”, she said.

Dr. Johannes Leitner, from WU Vienna University of Business and Economics held a presentation with the topic: “International Experiences and Methods of Linking Levels of Higher Education with Companies”. He brought in the experience of Austria to this issue. “The cooperation between University and businesses, the opportunities that are given to the students to develop their knowledge and practical skills are crucial in increasing the employability of graduates” he said.

Participants of this workshop, deans, vice-deans and students, had the possibility to discuss about these issues. Students expressed their concerns about having limited opportunities to conduct an internship in different companies and to have the possibilities of implementing in practice their theoretical knowledge gained through studies.

Prishtina. Within the “Cross-Sector Internship Program”, which is financed by USAID and implemented by WUS Austria Prishtina Office,  WUS Austria held a training for shortlisted candidates on 25.06.2010 at the Faculty of Philology of the University of Prishtina.

For 125 short-listed candidates, the training on “Career Development” was organized in three groups - each group  consisting of 40-42 participants.

The main objectives of the training "Career Development", was to inform, teach and advise students about:

• Facilitate the decision of career choice
• Goal setting
• CV preparation
• “Icing the interview“
• Presentation of the most frequent skills demanded by employers.

Furthermore, the training aimed at preparing  the candidates better for the interview round. Different institutions, municipalities, as well as private companies will choose for one available internship position to interview three candidates.  

The short-list of candidates for the targeted faculties (Law, Economics, Architecture and Civil and Engineering) was prepared by a professional committee. During the application call there was a huge interest expressed by the applicants. There were around 400 applications received for the three fields.

During the training participants raised various questions about job interviews and career development.

Vienna. From July 5-10, 2010 the finals of the Balkan Case Challenge (BCC) took place in Vienna. This initiative has become a major project in the efforts of WUS Austria to link higher education and economy and consequently to improve employability in South Eastern Europe (SEE). In order to follow up the goals of this project a conference about the benefits and challenges of links between universities and enterprises was organized on July 6. It was used to discuss current developments and potential new joint projects in this field.

Several experts from the WU (Vienna University of Economics and Business), from the university career centers in Graz, Vienna and Sarajevo as well as from the top talent network students4excellence gave lectures on the relevance of university-enterprise cooperation. The lectures were followed by two workshops about “New Teaching and Learning Methods – Development of Labor Market Oriented Curricula and Teaching Modules” and “Best Practices in Career Guiding and Career Counseling” and a closing discussion about joint activities and cross-border cooperation between all participating countries. More information about the lectures and a list of conference participants can be found here.

• Conference Agenda

• List of Participants
  

• Workshop Reports

• Presentations

Arnold Schuh, „Creating Win-Win Situations in Joint Projects”

Ursula Axmann, „Career Center - Enterprise Cooperation: Drawbacks and Opportunities“

Thomas M. Schneidhofer, Mag. Markus Latzke, „Stairway to Heaven? The Relationship between Study Track Record and Income in three (and a half) Business School Cohorts”

Martin Lust, „students4excellence – An Innovative Approach to Linking Higher Education and Economy”

Arnold Schuh, Workshop New Teaching Methods

Ursula Axmann, Workshop Career Centers

Sigrid Studler, Workshop Career Centers

Selma Kadic, Workshop Career Centers 

Belgrade. On July 8-9, within the framework of the project Support to the Serbian Accreditation Agency, WUS Austria Belgrade Office, together with the Serbian National Commission for Accreditation and Quality Control organized the “Self assessment and quality assurance of HE institutions seminar” (seminar venue: Hotel “KONTINENTAL” conference hall, Belgrade, Serbia).

The aim of the seminar was to cover topics related to accreditation and quality assurance, seen both from the external and internal perspective, with emphasis on key processes in program accreditation and evaluation procedures. Representatives of all state and private higher education institutions were invited to attend the seminar (for the list of participants click here).

The seminar brought together lecturers with relevant experience both from EU and Serbia, university representatives, EU and local experts, and representatives of the government (for the agenda of the seminar click here)

During the seminar sessions the participants had an opportunity to hear about the experiences from EU and the country (for the lecturers’ presentations click here) and to obtain additional information through open discussions.

Members of the organizing committee would like to express their gratitude to all participants for their efforts, great presentations and fruitful discussions.