REGIONAL COOPERATION AND ECONOMIC INTEGRATION
REGIONAL COOPERATION AND ECONOMIC INTEGRATION
REGIONAL COOPERATION AND ECONOMIC INTEGRATION
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CEFTA-2006 <strong>AND</strong> ANHANCING COMPETITIVENESS OF THE REGION - SOME SECTORAL ASPECTS<br />
Education (hereinafter: the Law) the field of higher education is of special importance for<br />
the Republic of Serbia as it is a part of international, and especially European educational<br />
and scientific field. Three subjects are responsible for the Law’s implementation: the<br />
National Council for Higher Education, the Commission for Accreditation and Quality<br />
Assurance and the Ministry.<br />
Immediately after it was set up, the National Council for Higher Education and the<br />
Commission for Accreditation and Quality Assurance started making norms and<br />
standards, so that the accreditation of higher education institutions and study programmes<br />
in compliance with Bologna Declaration could start as soon as possible. The European<br />
Qualifications Framework was taken as a point of departure, as well as the experience of<br />
majority European countries signatories of Bologna Declaration, with the aim to adjust it<br />
and implement as much as possible in the system of higher education in Serbia. The National<br />
Council approved the following acts on October 20, 2006: Standards for Accreditation of<br />
Higher Education Institutions and Study Programmes, Standards for Self-certification and<br />
Assessment of Quality of Higher Education Institutions, and the Standards and Procedures<br />
for External Quality Assurance of Higher Education Institutions. On December 11, 2006,<br />
the Commission for Accreditation and Quality Assurance became a full member of<br />
INQAAHE (International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education).<br />
(Grupa autora, 2007, pp.3).<br />
The novelties in the Law are a consequence of the legislator’s intention for the system of<br />
higher education in Serbia to become a part of international, especially European educational<br />
area, as well as to enable Serbia’s institutions to enter the process of acknowledgement of<br />
higher education qualifications in Europe. They are mostly reflected in types and levels of<br />
studies, introducing the European credit transfer system (ECTS – a system of unique point<br />
scoring for students’ study obligations), creating study programmes that are compatible<br />
and comparable to study programmes organized/carried out at higher education institutions<br />
in other European countries, and providing quality of higher education. The innovations<br />
mentioned are indispensable assumptions for synchronization with European system of<br />
higher education and improvement of academic mobility of professors and students, which<br />
were postulated in the Law, article IV, as one of the principles of higher education.<br />
When it comes to types and levels of studies, the Law makes difference between three levels<br />
of studies. First level studies are basic academic studies and basic professional studies.<br />
Second level studies are graduate academic studies – master, specialist professional studies<br />
and specialist academic studies, whereas doctoral academic studies represent third level<br />
studies. The previous law did not offer professional studies, master studies, nor doctoral<br />
studies, but only basic academic studies, postgraduate studies and doctoral dissertation.<br />
Basic academic studies may last three or four years, whereas master studies last a year or<br />
two, depending on the duration of basic studies. More precisely, the volume of studies is<br />
expressed with the sum of ECTS credits, which is yet another novelty in the Law. Namely,<br />
a certain number of ECTS credits are assigned to every course within a study programme,<br />
whereas the volume of the studies is indicated with the sum of ECTS credits.<br />
Legal solutions that are given, seen in providing high quality, transparency, measurability of<br />
study work-load and introduction of European credit transfer system, are all in the function<br />
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