The University of Montenegro is coordinator of the only structural project, named Fostering Internationalization at Montenegrin HEIs through Efficient Strategic Planning - IESP, approved in 2019 approved for funding by the European Commission within Erasmus+ program of Capacity Building in Higher Education. On this occasion in the University Rectorate on January 15th and 16th the first meeting of representatives of partner institutions participating in the project was held in the University Rectorate. Next to presentation of the project itself, on the meeting was agreed implementation of all activities in the domain of signing partnership agreements and members of the project consortium were presented.
The project partners are: the University of Donja Gorica, the Mediterranean University, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Science, the Agency for Quality Assurance and Control in Higher Education as well as partner universities from the EU: University in Ljubljana, University in Cadiz and the University Cote d’ Azure from Nice. Total budget of a two-year project is 683.014 euros.
Attendees of the meeting were welcomed by the Rector of the University of Montenegro, Danilo Nikolic, PhD and Head of the National Erasmus+ Office in Montenegro, Mrs. Vanja Drljevic. Rector Nikolic emphasized that crucial goals of development of Montenegrin higher education institutions included in this project are increase of international competitiveness, international recognition and visibility in the European space of higher education and European research space. They are fully harmonized with the Development Strategy of higher education in Montenegro that underlines international activities of universities with the need for their full integration into the European space of higher education. Mrs. Vanja Drljevic said that the University of Montenegro in the call for financing Erasmus+ project in 2019 has got three coordinating projects approved representing together with three approved partner projects maximum number allowed of six projects per institution and the best so far achieved result in the level of the oldest higher education institution in Montenegro.
The IESP is aimed at improving international competitiveness of Montenegrin universities that participate in the project, first of all through providing the optimal capacity building model for different aspects of internationalization. Purpose of project implementation is to overcome lacks present in the higher education institutions in Montenegro in the domain of internationalization of higher education institutions pointed out also by the international experts in their reports from 2018 within the Program of Institutional Evaluation (EUA IEP).
The IESP project will be focused on the following concrete aims:
- Development of institutional strategies of internationalization with action plans;
- Development of mechanisms for monitoring and evaluation of internationalization;
- Improvement of competences and skills of teaching and administrative staff for participation in the internationalization process;
- Improvement of prerequisites for increase the mobility of students, academic, research and non-academic staff.
Specific aims of the project will be implemented through several key assignments, including:
- Identification of different models of internationalization on partner universities from the European Union and development of guidelines for efficient model of internationalization on universities in Montenegro;
- Capacity building for participation in the internationalization process through staff training and equipment modernization;
- Development of necessary tools for strengthening internationalization process that include development of internationalization strategy with action plan and accompanying documents, introducing teaching in English for selected courses at undergraduate and master level and writing teaching materials in English Language, organization of accredited interdisciplinary summer schools in English, defining criteria for evaluation of internationalization process and establishing Language Center for internationalization in the University level.
Kick-off meeting report (Document)
Presentations of the project (Overview, Workplan, Financial management, Communication tools)
Presentations of partner institutions (P1 - ACQAHE, P4 - MoE, P5 - UCA_E)
Presentations of WPs (WP1, WP2, WP3, WP5, WP7)