FIRST CLUSTER ACCREDITATION OF STUDY PROGRAMMES

From November 28 to 30, the University of East Sarajevo was visited by the Review Panel as part of the cluster accreditation procedure for 12 study programs in the field of engineering and technology. This is the first accreditation procedure of study programmes according to the cluster accreditation model, which is carried out in the Republic of Srpska and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The costs of the accreditation procedure were borne by the Agency for Higher Education of the Republic of Srpska, in accordance with Article 41 of the Law on Quality Assurance in Higher Education of the Republic of Srpska, which stipulates that the accreditation procedures of public higher education institutions and study programs of higher education institutions are financed with funds from the budget of the Republic.

The subject of external evaluation were the following study programmes:

– Power Engineering (first and second cycle),
– Computer science and IT (first cycle),
– Computer technology and IT (second cycle),
– Automatics and electronics (first and second cycle),
– Industrial management (first and second cycle),
– Industrial engineering for energetics (first and second cycle)
– Traffic (second cycle) i
– Chemical engineering and technology (second cycle).

Due to the complexity of the procedure, the Review Panel had six members:

• Prof. Dušanka Bošković, PhD, representative of the academic community of BiH, chairman,
• Prof. Miroslav Bobrek, PhD, representative of the academic community of BiH, member
• Prof. Husein Keran, PhD, representative of the academic community of BiH, member
• Prof. Vesna Dragčević, PhD, international expert, member,
• Prof. Almir Badnjević, PhD, representative of business and practice, member and
• Anja Savić, student, member.
The experts were selected in such a way that they come from all narrow scientific fields to which the study programs that are the subject of evaluation belong. These are eminent experts in the field of engineering and technology.

The plan of the visit provided for the Review Panel to speak with the following interlocutors:
• Faculty management
• the quality team and the team for the preparation of self-evaluation reports of study programmes
• representatives of the student service, library, legal service and accounting
• representatives of the academic staff
• student representatives
• representatives of alumni and
• labour market representatives.

All meetings were held in accordance with the plan of the visit.
The Review Panel held parallel meetings at three locations during the first working day on November 28, 2022. In East Sarajevo with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering management, the quality team and the team for the preparation of self-evaluation reports of study programs (ETF), representatives of the student service, library, legal service and accounting of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering.
The commission held special meetings with academic staff and students of all years of study programmes of both cycles – Power Engineering, Automatics and Electronics, Computer Science and IT, and Computer Engineering and IT. During the first day of the visit, the Review Panel also inspected the facilities and equipment available at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, and at the end of the first day of the visit, the Review Panel had a video presentation of the facilities and equipment of the study programmes that are carried out at the locations of Trebinje, Zvornik and Doboj.
The second location was in Trebinje, where part of the Review Panel held a meeting with the management of the Faculty of Production and Management, with representatives of the student service, library, legal service and accounting, and a tour of the faculty’s facilities and equipment was carried out.
The third location was in Doboj, where part of the Review Panel had a meeting with the management of the Faculty of Traffic Engineering, with representatives of the student service, library, legal service and accounting, and an immediate insight into the faculty’s facilities and equipment was carried out.
During the second working day of the visit, on November 29, 2022, the Review Panel held a meeting in East Sarajevo with the academic staff of the Faculty of Traffic Engineering, the Faculty of Production and Management, and the Faculty of Technology, with students of all years of study, as well as with the quality team and the team for the preparation of the self-evaluation report of the Faculty of Traffic Engineering, Faculty of Production and Management and Faculty of Technology. Afterwards, a meeting was held with the alumni of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, the Faculty of Production and Management, the Faculty of Traffic Engineering and the Faculty of Technology, as well as with representatives of the labour market of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, the Faculty of Traffic Engineering, the Faculty of Production and Management and the Faculty of Technology.
On the same day, a meeting was held at the Zvornik location with the management of the Faculty of Technology, representatives of the student service, library, legal service and accounting, and then an inspection of the facilities and equipment was carried out.
On the third day of the visit, on November 30, 2022, the members of the Review Panel held an internal meeting during which they agreed on the content and guidelines of the preliminary report with the assessment of the situation and recommendations for improvement. They also emphasized the strengths and weaknesses and gave basic recommendations for improvement. After agreeing on a mutual position, a joint final meeting was held, and the Review Panel presented the preliminary report on the external evaluation to the representatives of the University management and the quality team.

Source: AVORS