ESU at QUAEM Final Conference – towards improved quality assurance in Moldovan HEI
Between 19 – 20 May 2016, ESU participated in QUAEM Final Conference in Chisinau, Moldova. The project aims at making Quality Assurance at Moldovan Higher Education Institutions (HEI) functional and conducive to HEI strategy development
The event gathered Moldovan universities participating in the project, other members of the consortium, representatives of students, as well as representatives of the National Erasmus+ Office of the Republic of Moldova, the Ministry of Education and the EU delegation to the Republic of Moldova.
Participants had the opportunity to know more about the results of the project and to share perspectives for further development of Quality Assurance for Higher Education in Moldova.
Cristi Popescu, ESU’s Executive Committee Member, presented recommendations for the role of students in quality assurance in Moldova. We are delighted to see that these recommendations were well received and the importance of strengthening the student’s participation in Quality Assurance processes in Moldova was recognized by all the stakeholders
Representatives of the Ministry of Education and EU Delegation to the Republic of Moldova congratulated on achieved results and expressed their commitment to further support the development of quality assurance in Moldova.
Background
QUAEM project investigates and supports the development of a QA system in HE institutions of the Republic of Moldova under the conditions of a transition society and the involvement of a large number of exogenous actors in this process. A needs analysis conducted in January 2011 has demonstrated that the newly established quality management structures at the Moldovan universities are not functional because of the lack of training of the staff involved, the low profile of students in QA, the low level of communication between the QA structures and the academic staff involved, the missing link between quality assurance and HE institutions’ strategy development and the lack of a body that brings QA activities together and helps to implement common standards in the Republic of Moldova.
The project addresses all these challenges through (i) a series of trainings for all the actors involved in the quality cycle (quality management officers, deans, professors, students, universities’ central administration) that are tailored to the specific needs in Moldova, (ii) the creation of peer networks for all the actors’ groups, (iii) the internal evaluation and the international accreditation of three pilot study programmes, (iv) the creation of a pool of experts (professors and students trained and actively involved in the process of international accreditation of the selected study programmes) for the future accreditation body of Moldova and (iv) the link between quality assurance, internationalization and strategy development of HE institutions.
For further information, please consult QUAEM website.
