Seminar “Promotion of Doctoral Studies” held in Mostar
Mostar. WUS Austria is proud to announce that the 2nd DDS seminar "Promotion of Doctoral Studies" was successfully held on March 11-12, 2010 at the Hotel Ero in Mostar.
The seminar Promotion of Doctoral Studies is the second seminar organized within the Degree Development Structure (DDS) project, which is being implemented within the programme “Austrian Support to Higher Education in Bosnia and Herzegovina 2008-2011”, financed by Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC).
WUS Austria considers that there is a great need for more intensive promotion of the doctoral education among BiH academic community, having in mind that:
- the main aim of development of the third cycle education in line with the Bologna principles is the building of a knowledge/innovation-driven economy based on the need for a knowledge-based society in the broadest sense,
- the doctoral education has been part of the Bologna process from the 2003 Berlin Communiqué and it has been considered as an increasing priority ever since,
- BiH higher education institutions are still highly lagging behind their European counterparts when it comes to the development of the third cycle education, etc.
Therefore, the main aim of the seminar was promotion of the doctoral education among BiH academic community, and it focused on emphasizing and discussing the importance of the third cycle studies and quality assurance in new-style doctoral studies, since the high quality doctoral education is a key to strengthening research capacity and competitiveness of each country.
The main seminar topics covered and the invited lecturers were as follows:
- Presentation of third cycle doctoral studies “PhD in ICT” at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Banja Luka by dipl. oec. Ahmet Mehić, Scientific Associate at the University of Paderborn (The study programme PhD in ICT is being developed within the DDS project by the twinning partnership between the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Banja Luka and the University of Paderborn.)
- Introduction to the latest trends in 3rd cycle studies in Europe by dr. Lucas Zinner, Head of the Center for Doctoral Studies, University of Vienna
- Doctoral education at the University of Paderborn, Germany by dipl. oec. Ahmet Mehić, Scientific Associate at the University of Paderborn
- Doctoral education at the University of Manchester, Great Britain by dr. Maria Nedeva, Senior Lecturer, Manchester Business School, University of Manchester
- Doctoral education at the University of Graz, Austria by MMag.
- Doctoral education at the University of Alicante, Spain by Prof. Covadonga Ordonez Garcia, Administrative Manager of the Language Center of the University of Alicante
- Quality Assurance in Doctoral Studies by dr. Maria Nedeva, Senior Lecturer, Manchester Business School, University of Manchester
- Linking of HE and economy-related to the third cycle by MMag. Reinhard Millner, Teaching and Research Associate, Non-profit Management Group, Department for Management, Vienna University of Economics and Business
*(The full seminar Agenda, as well as all the presentations, can be downloaded by clicking on the hyperlinks.)
The seminar was open to the wider academic community in BiH, and was attended by over 70 participants. They were mostly academic staff directly involved in implementation of the DDS project. Additionally, it was attended by professors, lecturers, teaching assistants, and university management representatives from public universities in BiH, as well as by representatives of cantonal ministries of education, Agency for Development of Higher Education and Quality Assurance BiH, and the media.
WUS Austria prepared a questionnaire to assess satisfaction of the seminar participants in terms of the seminar organisation, topics and lecturers. The questionnaire results showed that all the participants expressed their sincere satisfaction with the overall organisation of the seminar.
Additionally, the participants were asked to express their views on which further steps are needed for successful introduction and/or improvement of study programmes within the third cycle. Majority of the participants think that further steps should be cooperation with other higher education institutions and countries from the region, intensifying cooperation with economy and improvement of the surrounding on the economic level, linking economy and market needs, financial support, consideration of the needs for teaching and insistence on research, etc.
