Caption: meeting of the project steering committee at Baku in February 2020
In 2005 Azerbaijan joined the European Higher Education Area. A series of reforms were undertaken to implement the Bologna process.
In order to strengthen the quality of the higher education system, France Education International supported the Azeri Ministry of Education, in cooperation with Latvian and Lithuanian partners. This institutional twinning project, funded under the European Union's neighbourhood policy, began in April 2018 and ended in July 2020.
Taking the country's priority sectors for socio-economic development into account, six pilot universities and 15 degree programmes were identified in the fields of engineering, educational, and natural sciences. The project involved the renovation of the models for these 15 programmes - by introducing a student-centred skills-based approach, and by forging links with the professional world.
In collaboration with Azerbaijan's National Quality Assurance Agency, an original methodology for assessing the quality of university education has been developed, taking new criteria such as student employability and international mobility into account. Lastly, work was carried out on modernising current legislation to ensure that it is aligned with the practices of European countries.
Around forty experts from France, Latvia and Lithuania were involved. Many steps have been taken to help all the stakeholders handle the change. 80 interviews with the various actors of the Azeri higher education system and 94 working meetings were held. Nine training workshops on the skills-based approach and student-centred teaching were also proposed to the pilot universities' academic and administrative staff.
In order to be sure of maintaining what has been learned, six methodological guides have been drawn up for the universities, as well as a list of recommendations for the ministry relating to the actions to be followed once the project has ended.
Discover the project in pictures thanks to this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30Et7GdSqVw