Public universities and private colleagues still without accrediting: Making 239 apps

The conclusion of the accreditation process, meeting Kosovo's criteria for return to ECQA and ECA, are just two of the goals the new members of the State Council of Quality have.

State Council of Quality head Hasnije Ilazi, in an interview for Kosova Prees, says she will make efforts for the entire process of accrediting applications to be completed by the end of this month.

She announced that at the first meeting they held, they had several apps, but she said it is unrealistic to expect 239 applications in a very short time.

“We have held the first meeting and in the first meeting we have reached decisions for some, a part saying apps, we've had priorities in the first place, in the sense of institutional accreditation, and now there are specific programs that need to be accredited. Why is it late, I'm still saying it's not really very real to expect that in a month we can handle all those documents that have actually been 239 waiting applications, you can count that each app has 100 pages. It means it's impossible to get through them within such a short time... We hope and make efforts to get all programs through this evaluation process and have decisions by the end of July”, she says.

Since the State Council of Quality is also made up of international members who, without being present, cannot make decisions, Ilazi voices confidence that during this month they will manage to ensure the participation of one of the international members to complete the process.

The KSC chairman has declined to mention the names of institutions or programmes that have concluded the review, under the argument that decisions are being prepared for them and the same will then be published.

Despite universities having postponed the deadlines for opening the contests due to the failure to complete the process of accreditation, Ilazi says all apps will be considered with greater care.

Our “goal is to establish the quality of education in Kosovo and at the moment when we have mechanisms through which we will measure the rise or decline of quality in any institution, whether private or public, we will decide on the basis of performance that universities and colleges show. What we're going to be trying to do is again I'm saying that these criteria, these indicators will be as concrete as they are, to be as clear as possible, even as clear as the institutions themselves will be able to evaluate themselves during the process and then a clear idea of what would be the decision at the end of”, she points out.

During the application review process, Ilazi points out that they have observed that the current legislation and the manual they work with enable different interpretations of the criteria for accreditment, which says they intend to address it very quickly.

There are really some concessions in the current legislation even in the manual on which we work at the moment and which in some form allow some different interpretations of course from interested parties. But we will try that one of the main priorities that we will have after we pass this emergency phase, namely, to deal with this context of legislation, regulations and all those documents that are fundamental, which determine the policies that will become accreditation and the establishment of quality in education in Kosovo”, says Ilazi.

The head of the State Council of Quality states that as new members of this priority institution, they have met conditions for Kosovo's return to the ECQA and ECA.

Ilazi says the first point in which they are working is the Law for the Accreditation Agency of Kosovo, through which it says institutional independence will be gained.

It's now clear that going back to these two institutions is absolute priority for the board, but I'm still saying against all the steps we plan to take, sometimes it doesn't depend on us, it certainly depends on the other side when they're ready to do the assessment or re-evaluation of Kosovo's return to ENQA... We don't have any other option, we really can all day be able to sit around and enjoy what we've come up with in education, we know we're not good at education at all, but if we get involved in these international networks it's the only way to come up for some sort of complacency swamp and get into a competition which will now automatically move us to increase the quality and quality of education”, she points out.

In addition, she says she will work on monitoring accredited institutions, which, according to her, if institutions knew that they were constantly monitored would improve their performance.

Members of the State Council of Quality have been voted by the Assembly of Kosovo on 17 June, while the Council's constitutional gathering is held on 28 June.