Strengthening university autonomy and increasing accountability and transparency of Western Balkans Universities (STAND)

The novelty is that the STAND will be the first project in the region that will publish the scorecard and will create a forum of discussion with the main stakeholders in partner countries in providing sustainable models of university governance.

The project comprises of the following key specific objectives:

• To enhance modernisation of governance in Western Balkans Universities through capacity building, experience exchange and upgraded infrastructure;
• To improve the university autonomy through empowering national and university level regulations and structures;
• To create and adopt the university autonomy scorecard for Kosovo, Albania and Montenegro;
• To expand an effective cooperation between HEIs and the relevant ministries in improving the transparency, accountability and financial sustainability;
• To establish of the Expert network on university autonomy.

As structural project it will support reflecting on standards at EU partners and enhancing them at WB institutions through intensified regular academic and management exchange of good practice and sustainable networking between EU-WB partners. Main stakeholders such as Ministries of Education and Agencies of Accreditation agree on the need for improving the current situation.

A mix of bottom-up and top-down approach that will be used in the project, fosters the dialogue between universities and ministries, and thus enables the consortium to contribute more effectively to the project implementation and sustainability to strengthen the autonomy of Western Balkans higher education institutions. The project aims to reach up to 50,000 persons engaged in higher education and other related activities in Kosovo, Albania and Montenegro and abroad through its dissemination activities.