TWO-DAY INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE STARTED WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SMEQA PROJECT

A two-day international conference entitled "The "International Conference on Key Principles and Elements for Models of External Evaluation in Institutional and Program Accreditation"The conference is being held today and tomorrow as part of the implementation of the SMEQA project (Strengthening Capacities and Mechanisms for Enhancement of Quality Assurance System in Higher Education in Bosnia and Herzegovina), in which 19 institutions from Bosnia and Herzegovina and the European Union participate. The main coordinator of this project is the University of Zenica.

In the introductory part of the conference, the director of the Agency for the Development of Higher Education in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Prof. dr. Enes Hašić, vice-rector of the University of Banja Luka, Prof. Dr. Dalibor Kesić and the Rector of the University of Zenica Prof. Dr. Jusuf Duraković, who in their presentations emphasized the importance of the project for the further development of the quality system in higher education in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The conference in Banja Luka is also attended by the director of the Hungarian Accreditation Board (MAB) and a member of the Board of the European Association for Quality Assurance (ENQA) Peter Levante Lakatos, who addressed the audience in the introductory part and presented the Use of ESG in different contexts as well as the latest trends in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), as  and the Director of the European Quality Assurance Register in Higher Education (EQAR) Mr. Aleksandar Susnjar who spoke about the role of EQAR in the European Higher Education Area. In the continuation of the conference, representatives of the Croatian Agency for Science and Higher Education (AZVO), the National Agency for Quality in Higher Education (NAKVIS), and the Agency for the Development of Higher Education and Quality Assurance in BiH (HEA) presented the system of external quality assurance in higher education and its impact on the higher education system within the country as well as at the international level.

In the second part of the conference day, an analysis of the state of quality assurance in BiH, which was conducted through the project, will be presented, and representatives of CIP in BiH will speak about the accreditation process and QF in the context of recognizing diplomas abroad.

In the final part of the first day, a panel discussion entitled "External Evaluation Models - Challenges and Improvements" is planned, in which representatives of agencies, competent educational authorities and higher education institutions in BiH will participate.