Kick-off Meeting for the Project: “COMPETENCE at the University of Prishtina”
Prishtina. WUS Austria in cooperation with the University of Prishtina, organized the Kick-off Meeting at the premises of the Faculty of Philology which marks the beginning of the TEMPUS Project: “COMPETENCE at the University of Prishtina” (CUP), financed by the European Commission.
Present at the meeting were: Vice-Rector for International Relations of the UP, Prof. Dr. Naser Mrasori; Director of the Higher Education Department of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology of the Republic of Kosovo, Prof. Dr. Avdulla Alija; Head of the Kosovo Accreditation Agency, Prof. Dr. Ferdije Zhushi; Director of the Kosovo Accreditation Agency, Mr. Basri Muja; , as well as representatives of the EU partner universities from the University of Applied Scieces “FH Joanneum” in Austria, Katholieke Hogeschool Sint-Lieven in Belgium, University of Alicante in Spain, “La Sapienza” University in Italy and the University of Girona in Spain.
The general objective of the project is to establish a Competence and Observatory Center (CoC) which will serve as a national knowledge transfer and training center for relevant stakeholders and as a service center for the university. Furthermore, the aim of the project is to install info terminals (student guidance system) for students, professors and visitors of the University of Prishtina on 32 strategic locations at the UP campuses and to develop or advance a methodology and tools for assessing the match between skills and competences developed by institutions of higher education and those required by the labor market in Kosovo, and develop recommendations for curricula adaptation at the University of Prishtina.
During his opening speech, Vice-Rector Mrasori stressed out the importance of the project in the reformation process of the UP: “One of the most important challenges which Kosovo faces is the reformation of the University of Pristina in accordance with its needs and in accordance with the Bologna Process and the latest developments in Higher Education in Europe. The University of Pristina, as a public institution with the largest number of faculties and students in Kosovo, remains committed to offering students qualitative studies (...) and to enable them to put into practice the knowledge they have gained during the studies with competence and professionalism”, said Vice-Rector Mrasori. The Director of the Higher Education Department of MEST, Prof, Dr. Avdulla Alija mentioned the importance that the “COMPETENCE @ UP” project has in offering qualitative studies in Kosovo: “This project helps the UP in consolidating mechanisms to ensure high quality education, comparable and competitive in the European Higher Education Area, while the word quality is the common denominator of all activities”.
Among many project outputs, also two Pilot Study Programs will be introduced during the implementation phase. The duration of the project is three years.
