As part of the EPER project, the Final Conference of the EPER project was held in Dubrovnik, Republic of Croatia. Representatives of the countries participating in the EPER project, namely Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia and Northern Macedonia, presented the main results of the EPER project realized during almost three years of the project.
Despite the pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus, a total of ten project partner meetings and two workshops were held during the project, mostly in a hybrid format. Nevertheless, the key results of the project have been achieved. One of the key project activities, study visits to EU countries were not realized, mainly due to the bad epidemiological situation in most EU countries. The aim of the study visits was to familiarize the project participants with the best practices in the recognition procedures of EU countries.
A document about recognition of the qualifications of refugees, displaced persons and persons in refugee which will assist all countries in the implementation of Article 7 of the Lisbon Recognition Convention was made during the project. An example of good practice from the University of Zagreb was presented at the Conference.
The review of European Experiences and Good Practices in the Recognition of Educational Qualifications was presented at the Conference, which analyzed the procedures for the recognition of educational qualifications of the countries participating in the EPER project, as well as Austria, Slovenia, Hungary and Latvia. The study will be completed soon and will be available on the official EPER project website.
It was also presented a proposal for a new legal framework on the recognition of qualifications in the Republic of Croatia, which is one of the key results of the Project. The main changes offered by the new legal solutions are related to the procedure of non-administrative evaluation in order to access the labor market, and the procedure of recognizing the qualifications of refugees, displaced persons and persons under subsidiary protection.
The key changes in the legislative framework of the Republic of Slovenia in recognition procedures were also presented, by which Slovenia seeks to harmonize the legislative framework with the provisions of the Lisbon Recognition Convention.
In the final part of the Conference, the representative of Northern Macedonia presented the challenges of the quality assurance system in higher education, related to the recognition of qualifications, while the representative of the Education and Reform Initiative for Southeast Europe (ERI SEE) presented current initiatives on quality assurance and recognition of qualifications for the Western Balkans.
The Workshop on Future Cooperation after the Completion of Project Activities was held during the second day. It was attended by representatives of the participating countries and the ERI SEE. Representatives of the Center for Information and Recognition of Qualifications in Higher Education and the Qualifications Agency of the Republic of Serbia presented the benefits of the EPER project that should help improve recognition procedures in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, while the ERI SEE presented its plans to improve reform processes in the area of quality assurance and recognition systems in the South East Europe. At the very end, the opportunity for further cooperation between representatives of participating countries was mentioned. They expressed satisfaction with the results of the Project and common interest in continuing cooperation.
All information about the EPER project can be found on theirs official website at the following link: https://eper.com.hr.
