Target area:	Higher Education Development
Sub-target area:	Higher Education Management
Target countries:	Kosovo
Duration:	01/06/2024 - 31/05/2027
Partners:	Consortium World University Service (WUS) Austria ZSI - Centre for Social Innovation OeAD GmbH - Austrian Exchange Service Project Partners Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Kosovo Kosovo Accreditation Agency (KAA)  Public Universities of Kosovo National Science Council
Budget line:	Austrian Development Cooperation

Project description

Programme objective:

The programme SHER - Sustainable Higher Education and Research in Kosovo aims at contributing to a sustainable, evidence-based, needs-oriented and gender-responsive Higher Education and Research sector in Kosovo that is in line with the principles of EHEA, ERA, and SDG 4 and 9.

Expected results:

SHER aims to reach the following outputs:

At the Policy level, enhanced skills and competences of MESTI staff in charge of Higher Education (HE) and Research for effectively developing and implementing policies and laws along European standards in HE and research including performance-based funding (in line with specific objective 4.4. of KES). Enhanced skills and competences of KAA staff in addressing the requirements for regaining full membership in ENQA and EQAR (in line with specific objective 4.4. of KES).

At the University level, capacities are developed for enhanced good governance, labour-market relevant education and the promotion of the 3rd mission at Kosovo’s public universities (in line with specific objective 4.2. of KES). Capacities developed for the implementation of performance-based funding and internal quality assurance systems (in line with specific objective 4.2. of KES).

At the Research level, capacities are developed for enhanced quality of teaching, research & innovation, implementation of the National Research Programme and the internationalisation/Europeanisation of its HE and research system.

Target group: The target groups in Kosova are the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI), the Kosovo Accreditation Agency (KAA), the National Science Council, public Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Kosovo including students who belong to vulnerable and underrepresented groups.

The Project ‘SHER’ is built on the lessons learnt from the previous projects HERAS (2017-2020) and HERAS+  (2020-2024).