Tempus Project TEMPUS IT-SMGR DOCUMENTATION FOR QUALITY ASSURANCE OF STUDY PROGRAMMES IN PARTNER COUNTRIES Strategic Impact of the DoQuP Project Results: in the case of Odlar Yurdu University Idrak RAHIMOV Head of the Division on admissions and student records A member of the Commission for Quality Assurance at Odlar Yurdu University Bishkek

Preface 2 Odlar Yurdu University (OYU) is a private higher education institution, established in 1995 in Baku, Azerbaijan. In 2006 and 2012 – Odlar Yurdu University received accreditation from the accreditation commission of the Ministry of Education of the Azerbaijan Republic. Currently, there are about 1800 students and approximately 180 professors/lecturers. Higher education in OYU has the following structure: basic two-level highest vocational training, which is carried out consistently as four-year-old baccalaureate, completed with receiving of the bachelor degree and the two-year-term magistracy, completed with master degree diploma; and, following magistracy, post graduate three-year education to carry out scientific researches, which is completed by receiving a PhD degree.

3 Under the influence of the DoQuP project, structural modernization was carried out at OYU in 2014, which allowed the university a greater flexibility in the process of adaptation to changing challenges of the market of educational services, and making the training of students more transparent. At present, the basic structure of OYU is as follows:  SCHOOL OF OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION, ECONOMICS AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS (Department of Business, Economics and Management; Department of International Relations and Social Sciences)  SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES AND LANGUAGES (Department of Azerbaijani Language and Literature; Department of Foreign Languages and Translation)  SCHOOL OF NATURAL AND APPLIED SCIENCES (Department of Mathematics, Computer Science and Technical Subjects; Department of Biology and Ecology; Department of Chemistry) Structural modernization

At the beginning of the project 4 OYU started to participate in the DoQuP project in The project description for OYU is: Definition and implementation of an on-line documentation system for quality assurance of study programs in OYU. The central aspect of the Quality Assurance (QA) of Study Programs (SPs) is a clear documentation of below five subtasks: learning objectives; educational process; learning context; learning outcomes; management system. It is worth recalling that the project aims to define and to implement an on-line documentation system for the QA of SPs at Odlar Yurdu University, consistent with the European Standards and Guidelines for QA.

5 On the one hand, under the project, documentation of each of the five subtasks, mentioned above, had to be standardized and modernized. On the other hand, it was necessary to significantly expand the technical capabilities of OYU’s website, to which relevant documents should be submitted in the on-line mode. With regard to the first problem, it should be noted that in many cases terms used and their interpretation were not sufficiently clear standardized in Azerbaijan by the start of the DoQuP project in Taking into account the requirements of the DoQuP project, regarding harmonization with the European Standards and Guidelines for QA, it was necessary to create a glossary of terms used in the Azerbaijani language in accordance with generally accepted European standards. According to the project, OYU had to solve two kinds of problems:

6 In this regard, based on a glossary of terms proposed by the DoQuP Project Coordinator Prof. Alfredo Squarzoni, a special Dictionary was developed and published in small edition: An explanatory Azerbaijani dictionary of terms and notions used in the Bologna process. Compiler - Editors: Prof. Alfredo SQUARZONI and Prof. Ruslan SADIRKHANOV Text editors: Eyvaz HUSEYNOV and Idrak RAHIMOV. This dictionary contains 116 terms in Azeri and English languages with terms’ explanation in the Azerbaijani language. It was distributed free to universities from all regions of Azerbaijan, as well as given to the Ministry of Education of Azerbaijan. From 10 October 2014, the electronic format of the dictionary has been available on the website of OYU for free access for all stakeholders. Up to now, the dictionary has been downloaded by more than 1,200 stakeholders. An explanatory dictionary of terms

7 It should be noted that during of work on the dictionary, material for more than 800 English - Azerbaijani terms and their interpretations in Azerbaijani was also prepared, as well as it was harmonized with the requirements of the European Standards and Guidelines for QA, and other applicable standards of the terms used in the European educational area. Unfortunately, the lack of funding is not allowed to make edition of this a larger version of the Dictionary.

8 Concerning the implementation of the project’s main five subtasks, it is worth to note the following: Some of the methods and standards for the implementation of aforementioned five subtasks used in OYU by 2011 were not harmonized with European standards. In this regard, it was necessary to create teaching aids that would help faculty members to use modern teaching technology and training standards. The creation a methodological guide in the Azerbaijani for the development of a modern syllabus for all subjects taught in the university was one of the priority tasks without which it would be difficult to implement fully the requirements of the DoGuP project. Relatively recently, in January 2014, this work was completed. The electronic format of this tutorial is available on the website of OYU for easy access by all stakeholders (teachers and universities of Azerbaijan). Based on this methodological guide, the standardization process for syllabus development for all subjects at both undergraduate and graduate levels is going to be completed in the near future. A methodological guide in Azerbaijani for the development of modern syllabuses

Existing shortcomings in the implementation of DoQuP project by OYU 9 In the framework of the DoQuP project, OYU was offered a specially designed software program to describe the relevant documentation at the level of undergraduate and graduate programs. This work should be carried out on the basis of the documentation system of training programs currently used at OYU. It was a completely new stage in the development of OYU. Unfortunately, because of the insufficient development of modern standards and description of the educational process, the level of implementation of this requirement carried out by OYU contains a number of shortcomings and repetitions. Nevertheless, the started process of modernization of the education system under the influence of the DoQuP project has become irreversible and the aforementioned disadvantages will be eliminated.

The nearest perspective of the DoQuP project’s completion in OYU 10 Until the end of this year, the necessary work on the use of all the opportunities provided by the DoQuP project to upgrade the educational process will continue, and definition and implementation of an on-line documentation system for the quality assurance of study programs in OYU will be completed. Of course, OYU’s website plays an important role in the project’s implementation. In this regard, OYU is very interested in expanding the technical capacity of the current website by applying the computer soft-ware proposed by the DoQuP project.

11 It is worth noting that the DoQuP project has had a significant positive impact on the acceleration of the process of modernization of Odlar Yurdu University by providing an appropriate documentation model for the educational process, in which there are full transparency of all main elements of this process and opportunities for self-improvement as a whole. In conclusion, Odlar Yurdu University expresses its deep appreciation to the project coordinator Prof. Alfredo Squarzoni, project manager Angelo Musaio, as well as the developers of the software program Simone Ravaioli and Massimo Rimondi for their valuable work. The positive impact of the DoQuP project

12 THANK YOU FOR ATTENTION