In 2016 the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law took part in drafting the Erasmus+ structural project “Development and Implementation of System for Performance Evaluation for Serbian HEIs and Systems – PESHES” which secured its financial support by the EU Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) in July 2016. Hence, in the upcoming three year period the Faculty of Law will be coordinating the Project activities on behalf of the University of Belgrade, whilst Prof. Sima Avramović, Dean of the Faculty, will be heading the Project team.

The wider objective of the Project is improvement of the management and functioning of higher education institutions and system in Serbia through defining the indicators for measuring the performance of the aforementioned institutions as a basis for value based management and structuring, as well as pilot implementation of the system for ranking of institutions and study programs. The Project will provide a transparency tool in ranking of study programs and institutions, as well as contribute to performance based funding, while supporting diversity and differentiation in order to accommodate a greater variety in needs of students, the labour market and society.

Kick-off meeting of the PESHES Project was held on 12-13 December 2016 in the Conference hall at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law. The meeting was attended by 37 participants, which represented the following partnering institutions: University of Belgrade, University of Kragujevac, University of Novi Sad, University of Niš, State University of Novi Pazar, Singidunum University, University of Twente, University of Rijeka, Politecnico di Torino, Universidad Politecnica de Valencia, National Council of Higher Education, Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia, National Employment Service of the Republic of Serbia, Conference of Academies for Applies Studies in Serbia, Center for the Promotion of Science, Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development.

Welcoming speeches were addressed by Project coordinator and representatives of other members of the Consortium. Firstly, participants were greeted by the Dean of Faculty of Law, Prof. Dr. Sima Avramović who stated that the project had the great importance for the future development of the higher education not only in Serbia, but in other countries, since the results of the project will be spread all over the region. Prof. Dr. Ivanka Popović, the representative of the Rectorate of University of Belgrade highlighted that Serbia is preparing the new law which will have a special focus on financing the higher education institutions and that the valuable experience from the foreign partners could be very useful for this project. Dr. Vesna Mandić, the representative of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development emphasized that this project is very important for the Ministry and that it is one of the five structural projects that Ministry recommended and accepted in the application phase. She believes that the indicators for measurement that will be set in the project could represent good guidelines that will be wildly accepted in Serbia and in the region. PESHES will tackle some very important issues and in particular it will improve the current system of ranking of study programs, develop the model of financing the higher education institutions, and set indicators for evaluating the quality of education etc., for which the Ministry is very interested.

At the first day of the meeting, the project presentation was addressed by the representatives of University of Belgrade and University of Kragujevac, Prof. Dr. Sima Avramović and Prof. Dr. Miladin Stefanović, following by the short presentations of partnering institutions. The second day of kick-off meeting was reserved to discussion of the budget and the concrete steps of the project that should be undertaken in the future. Also, Ivana Živadinović, the representative of Erasmus+, gave a speech about the project management, reporting and National Erasmus+ Office monitoring. At the end, Prof. Milena Djordjević summarized what have agreed at the meeting.

More information about this project can be found at: peshes.ius.bg.ac.rs