Higher Education Intervention 2025 (HEI25)



Contract partner: Konsortium - Kosova Education Center (2 Organisationen) Country: Kosovo Funding amount: € 1.400.000,00 Project start: 01.11.2022 End: 31.10.2025

Short Description:

Overall goal


The outcome of this project is that (1) the Kosovo higher education becomes more democratic and indicates improvement of legislation and increased inclusiveness of students in decision-making processes, while (2) public higher education institutions (HEIs) are internally competitive. In the long term, the project shall contribute to improved quality, effectiveness and competitiveness of the higher education sector which contributes to social and economic development of the country


Expected results


Output 1. Increased usage of digital services and workflows by the Kosovo Accreditation Agency (KAA) and improved credibility of the accreditation process

Output 2. Established Ranking system of public higher education institutions

Output 3. Improved performance of HEIs in preventing academic misconduct

Output 4. Improved transparency and efficiency of work processes in the National Academic Recognition Information Centre (NARIC) Kosova

Output 5. Enhanced capacity of young faculty members (young university assistants and/or post-docs) to carry-out research-based teaching with emphasis on gender equality in research

Output 6. Increased democracy in HEIs through student activism with emphasis on gender equality in student activism


Target group / Beneficiaries


The target groups for this Action are:

1) KAA, a national body responsible for external quality assurance in HE;

2) Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) responsible for planning the development of higher education in Kosovo;

3) Seven public universities in Kosovo accounting for 57% of the total student population in the country, organized in the Kosovo Rector’s Conference;

4) Student groups representing interests of more than 54,000 students in 7 public universities in Kosovo;

5) Academic staff in Kosovo public universities.


In total, the project aims to reach 1,144 direct beneficiaries. In addition to 54,000 students from the seven public universities, indirect beneficiaries will be the academic and administrative staff of these universities (in total 2,130 persons).


Activities


1.1. Support digitalization of KAA accreditation and internal work processes

1.2. Organization of study visits

1.3. Monitor the KAA and the State Quality Council (SQC)

2.1. Monitor the academic integrity of public universities

2.2. Monitor the academic promotions processes in public universities

2.3. Monitor the transparency of universities

2.4. Develop University rankings based on the aforementioned criteria

3.1. Support the development of procedures and regulations related to academic issues

3.2. Development of online courses for academic staff

4.1. Support the development of legislation (procedures and regulations) for NARIC Kosova

4.2. Support the digitalization of NARIC

4.3. Monitor the National Council for Recognition and NARIC Kosova

5.1. Support MESTI in designing research-based teaching calls for projects

5.2. Increase research-based teaching capacities of academic staff

6.1. Increase the capacities of the student activists in writing projects and implementing them

6.2. Provide small grants to formal student organizations and informal student groups


Context


This project is a follow-up phase of the project "Quality, Accountability, Integrity and Transparency in Higher Education in Kosovo" (QAINT). Over 1,700 students were involved in seeking better quality education in the project’s activities, while 229 students volunteered in implementing 30 student grants (as of May 2022), reaching over 6,000 students through the student grants’ activities.

project number 8205-00/2022
source of funding OEZA
sector Hochschulausbildung
tied
modality Project-type interventions
marker Gender: 1, Democracy: 1
  • Policy marker: are used to identify, assess and facilitate the monitoring of activities in support of policy objectives concerning gender equality, aid to environment, participatory development/good governance, trade development and reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health. Activities targeting the objectives of the Rio Conventions include the identification of biodiversity, climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation, and desertification.
    • 1= policy is a significant objective of the activity
    • 2= policy is the principal objective of the activity
  • Donor/ source of funding: The ADA is not only implementing projects and programmes of the Austrian Development Cooperation , but also projects funded from other sources and donors such as
    • AKF - Foreign Disaster Fund of the Austrian federal government
    • BMLFUW - Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water
    • EU - Funds of the European Commission
    • Others - various other donors are listed in ADA’s annual business report.
  • Type of Aid – Aid modalities: classifies transfers from the donor to the first recipient of funds such as budget support, core contributions and pooled programmes and funds to CSOs and multilateral organisations, project-type interventions, experts and other technical assistance, scholarships and student costs in donor countries, debt relief, administrative costs and other in-donor expenditures.
  • Purpose/ sector code: classifies the specific area of the recipient’s economic or social structure, funded by a bilateral contribution.
  • Tied/Untied: Untied aid is defined as loans and grants whose proceeds are fully and freely available to finance procurement from all OECD countries and substantially all developing countries. Transactions are considered tied unless the donor has, at the time of the aid offer, clearly specified a range of countries eligible for procurement which meets the tests for “untied” aid.