1. WP5 Quality plan
Prof. Dr. Andrej Škraba Assoc. Prof. Dr. Matjaž Debevc
MSc Karolina Anna Bucka Kustec
Prof. Dr. Jernej Turk
University of Maribor
Kick-off Meeting, Montenegro, February 2019

2. Kick-off Meeting, Montenegro, February 2019
Overview
Lead organization: University of Maribor (with the help of University of Vienna & University of Montenegro)
Establishment of the Quality Monitoring Committee (QMC)
Establishment of working groups for internal quality control  and assignment of local QC officer, the responsible person in local QC working group (at Partner members, Montenegrin and Albanian universities)
Responsible for quality control procedures
Adopted by the Steering Committee
External QC and monitoring activities / External Evaluators
Kick-off Meeting, Montenegro, February 2019

3. Kick-off Meeting, Montenegro, February 2019
WP5: QC deliverables
D5.1: Quality plan adopted D5.2: Internal quality assurance reports D5.3: Tender for subcontracting external QC expert D5.4: External quality control and monitoring report
Kick-off Meeting, Montenegro, February 2019

4. Quality Monitoring Committee
QMC members - academic staff from each EU partner, not involved in any other capacity in the MARDS project.
Task of QMC members:
Participation at Quality Plan (QP) development – which will be presented and approved by the Steering Committee at the beginning of the project (procedures, sheets, templates, recommendations, guidelines etc.)
QMC will receive reports each six months from Local QC Officer
QMC will, after visiting each partner university, prepare yearly progress reports on activities and results and submit them to the SC for approval and decision on corrective actions.
Prepare Terms of References (TOR) and Tender for engaging two External QC Experts
Deliverables:
Quality Plan  M4
Yearly progress report on activities and results
TOR and Tender for Ext. QC Exps.
Kick-off Meeting, Montenegro, February 2019

5. Quality Control and Monitoring – internal, local
A working group for internal quality control is to be created at each partner university in Albania and Montenegro (one academic staff, one student, and one ministry or chamber of commercess representative).
Assignment of a local responsible person for QC ~ Local QC Officer
Tasks: 
Preparation and use of all necessary material (questionnaires, forms, etc.) and guidelines.
report every six months to the QMC
The coordinator require all necessary actions, defined by SC, which should be taken in order to correct possible deviation
Kick-off Meeting, Montenegro, February 2019

6. Local Quality Control Officers
No. 
Institiution
Name and surname 1.
University of Vlora 
Prof. as. Elenica Pjero 2.
Metropolitan Tirana University
Emre Cecen
3. 
Shkodra University "Luigj Gurakuqi"
Prof. Brilanda Bushati
4. 
Polytechnic University of Tirana
Mr. Gjergj Islami  5.
Univerzitet Donja Gorica
Prof. Dr. Dragica Zugic 6.
University of Montenegro
Prof. Dr. Biljana Scepanovic
Kick-off Meeting, Montenegro, February 2019

7. Kick-off Meeting, Montenegro, February 2019
QC Structure
Kick-off Meeting, Montenegro, February 2019

8. Tender for subtracting external QC experts
Two experts from non-participating EU institutions will be engaged (subcontracted) as external evaluators
International tender
Initiated from beginning of second year (M13) and completed by M16
Terms of References (TOR) and Tender will be prepared by QMC, while announced by SC
Kick-off Meeting, Montenegro, February 2019

9. Kick-off Meeting, Montenegro, February 2019
Quality Control Plan
QC Plan (QCP) will be created by the QMC.
Include all elements related to the internal and external quality control (procedures, sheets, templates, recommendations, guidelines etc.).
QP will be used for the monitoring all activities and project flow.
Deadline: adopted by SC in M4.
Kick-off Meeting, Montenegro, February 2019

10. Kick-off Meeting, Montenegro, February 2019
Quality Control Plan
Preparation
Kick-off Meeting, Montenegro, February 2019

11. Kick-off Meeting, Montenegro, February 2019
Assumptions and Risks
Involvement of students, faculty & technical staff, administration.
Well organized cooperation and communication between the project partners.
Appropriate infrastructure & technical support in partner country universities.
Mitigation measures: Quality control will start from M0.
Risks: No responses from partners, Bureaucratic procedures, Administrative delays in selecting foreign experts, the findings are not binding for domicile institutions…
Kick-off Meeting, Montenegro, February 2019

12. Deliverables & Outcomes
The reports from the partner’s (Higher Education Institutions) HEI teams implementing internal quality procedures at home, involving all evaluation of all activities and deliverables according to the project proposal
The results from monitoring visits to participating Western Balkan Contries (WBC) HEIs.
Report on the overall implementation of the project activities as well as to the curricula development and implementation and include financial reports.
The Internal Mid QC Term and Yearly QC Reports will be delivered on M7, M12, M14, M24, M36.
Suggest corrective actions and will be submitted to SC for approval.
Used like milestones during the project realisation.
Kick-off Meeting, Montenegro, February 2019

13. Kick-off Meeting, Montenegro, February 2019
External Evaluator
Two experts from non-participating EU institutions will be engaged (subcontracted) as external evaluators according the international tender  (D5.3).
The tender will define Terms of References (TOR) for such kind of job and it will be initiated from beginning of second year (M13) and completed by M16.
TOR and Tender will be prepared by QMC, while announced by SC.
Kick-off Meeting, Montenegro, February 2019

14. Deliverables & Outcomes (cont.)
Participating EU institutions will be engaged (subcontracted) as external evaluators and their activities will start from second half of second year.
During second year of engagement they will check all documents of internal QC.
These experts will visit each partner universities in the beginning of the third project year.
Inputs for visits will be prepared and delivered to the experts by the QMC and CPs (contact persons).
During these visits, they will have the chance to talk with all target groups identified in the project and they will have access to all documents prepared during the project implementation as well to propose measures in written form to each of CP to improve the state.
Report on external quality control by presented and discussed on the coordination meeting.
This Report will be also part of the Final project report. These activities will be subcontracted.
Kick-off Meeting, Montenegro, February 2019

15. Kick-off Meeting, Montenegro, February 2019
Quality Plan Aim
Quality Plan sets out the quality assurance procedures for the MARDS project.
Its aim is to ensure that the results and of the project are of high quality and meet the specifications set in the project proposal.
The Quality Plan includes a description of quality areas addressed, quality indicators and quality assurance related procedures and methods that will be implemented throughout the MARDS project duration.
This plan will be implemented jointly by the overall project partnership.
Its implementation will be led by the WP5 Quality Assurance Manager who is responsible for all quality-related issues.
Kick-off Meeting, Montenegro, February 2019

16. Major objectives of MARDS Quality Plan
Assurance of:
the projects methodological quality, in terms of validity of the activities carried out and project products developed,
practical applicability and sustainability of the project results,
a sound project implementation in terms of partner cooperation and collaboration and project processes.
Kick-off Meeting, Montenegro, February 2019

17. Kick-off Meeting, Montenegro, February 2019
Process quality
Three dimensions of process quality will be investigated in the framework of the MARDS project:
quality of partner cooperation and collaboration in general
quality of project implementation processes
quality of project partner meetings
For those aspects quality indicators will be defined and appropriate evaluation/documentation procedures will be provided.
Kick-off Meeting, Montenegro, February 2019

18. Kick-off Meeting, Montenegro, February 2019
Deliverables Quality
Deliverables quality assurance will primarily be implemented by defining quality indicators with which deliverables (primarily deliverables prepared for publication such as reports, guideliness, training) must comply with.
Review process for project deliverables will be provided.
Particular quality assurance procedures will be outlined for events.
Kick-off Meeting, Montenegro, February 2019

19. Project Sustainability
Cross-cutting through project processes and deliverables.
Investigation of the project performance in terms of measures to assure project sustainability.
Sustainability indicators will be defined and appropriate evaluation/documentation procedures will be provided.
Kick-off Meeting, Montenegro, February 2019

20. Quality indicators of partner cooperation and collaboration
Continuous and efficient communication among partners is assured.
Ongoing and coherent information management is assured with appropriate tools.
Partners have access to all information relevant for the overall project implementation.
Partners have a coherent understanding of the project, its methodical approach and terminology used.
Partners are actively involved in all relevant project processes.
Partners’ interests and needs are continuously considered and integrated into the project's implementation.
Kick-off Meeting, Montenegro, February 2019

21. Quality indicators on the Implementation Processes
Agreement and decision making on workpackage (WP) implementation plans.
Methodological approach and assignment of tasks (in order to incorporate the individual WP into the overall project with its aims and objectives and to ensure necessary links between WP’s).
Agreement and decision making within WP implementation (in order to incorporate individual WP implementation steps into the overall WP and to ensure necessary links other WP and project elements).
Kick-off Meeting, Montenegro, February 2019

22. Quality indicators on the Realization / Methodology
Implementation drafts/proposals are in coherence with the overall projects and the specific WP/deliverable aim and objectives.
Links and interfaces with other workpackages are considered in the implementation of a specific WP and/or WP step/element.
Specific interests and characteristics of the different partners involved in the project/ WP/ step/element implementation are considered.
Project and project results validity and sustainability are assured.
Stakeholders (Universities, Ministries, Chamber of Commerce, Students, Industry) are involved to a high extend at all possible and defined stages of project implementation.
The applied procedures and instruments are critically reflected regarding their objectivity, reliability and validity.
The methodological approach applied is appropriate for the involved Universities and stakeholders and reflects the state of the art in doctoral studies.
Kick-off Meeting, Montenegro, February 2019

23. Quality indicators of project partner meetings
Project meetings are prepared and managed in the most (resource) efficient way in order to make best use of the available meeting time.
Partner representatives (special) needs are considered and addressed within the overall meeting realization.
All partners are actively involved and actively contribute to the project partner meetings.
(Inter-)Cultural aspects are sufficiently considered in the meeting realization.
Meeting documentation is sufficient to ensure comprehensibility of meeting discussions, decisions and decision making processes also beyond the group of partner representatives attending the meeting and over the whole time of project implementation.
The meeting makes a considerable contribution to the overall project realisation and success.
The meetings make a considerable contribution to team building and smooth interaction between and among partners also besides the project meetings.
All partners (if applicable, those concerned) send representatives to the meetings.
Kick-off Meeting, Montenegro, February 2019

24. Quality indicators on deliverables prepared for publication
The deliverables:
complies with the formal criteria displayed in the provided templates regarding its layout and structure
is in coherence with the deliverable description in the project proposal and fulfils its planned purposes in the framework of the WP and the overall project
sources of data/information are clearly described
proves objectivity, reliability and validity in terms of data provided and used, analysis results, argumentations, reasoning and conclusions
reflects the recent status of development in terms of its content
is structured and/or written in a way that facilitates its (results) use by its target group(s)
contains relevant information for the target group
provides an added value to the current status of development/discussion on its topic
contains innovative elements to an extend that can be expected from its description in the proposal
overall concept and results promise high potential for sustainability.
Kick-off Meeting, Montenegro, February 2019

25. Quality indicators for events (seminars, workshops, conferences)
The event(s) …
is structured/ implemented in a way that meets the target groups needs
provides relevant and reliable information to the target group.
provides an added value to the current status of development/discussion on its topic
contains innovative elements that are of relevance for its target group
overall concept and implementation promises high potential for sustainability
has a clear European and intercultural dimension
provides information that it is part of the project MARDS project and has been funded by the ERASMUS+ programme
Kick-off Meeting, Montenegro, February 2019

26. Quality indicators on project sustainability
Relevant stakeholders (Universities, Ministries, Chamber of Commerce, Students, Industry) are actively involved in project activities throughout the overall course of the project and are regularly consulted in the project implementation.
Relevant stakeholders are regularly informed about project activities and results via appropriate communication channels.
Project results are of use for and provide an added value to stakeholders in the area of doctoral studies.
Project results are of use for and provide an added value to the project partner organisations.
Project results and information about project activities are regularly disseminated within the partners own organisations and connected to the regular activities of the organization.
Partners develop individual and joined strategies for further use, development and dissemination of project results beyond the projects framework.
The quality assurance measures in the MARDS quality plan are continuously implemented throughout the overall project duration.
Kick-off Meeting, Montenegro, February 2019

27. Kick-off Meeting, Montenegro, February 2019
QP - Overview
Kick-off Meeting, Montenegro, February 2019

28. Kick-off Meeting, Montenegro, February 2019
QCM members - tasks
Implementation of questionnaire at local institution
Kick-off Meeting, Montenegro, February 2019

29. Important document for monitoring the quality of implementation
The Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area.
A key goal of the Standards is to contribute to the common understanding of quality assurance for learning and teaching across borders and among all stakeholders.
Kick-off Meeting, Montenegro, February 2019

30. Kick-off Meeting, Montenegro, February 2019
ToDo (cont.)
Send the name of the Quality Monitoring Commitee Member to (one academic staff from each EU partner, not involved in any other capacity in the MARDS project).
Members of Montenegrin and Albanian universities should appoint a working groups for internal quality control (local QC officers already assigned)
Answer Kick Off Meeting Survey: (by all participants)
Kick-off Meeting, Montenegro, February 2019

31. Kick-off Meeting, Montenegro, February 2019
Literature, sources
ESG (2015) Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area ESG 2015.
Claudia Ball, DEKRA Akademie GmbH (2015) Quality Assurance Plan, Erasmus+ Trans2Work project.
Kick-off Meeting, Montenegro, February 2019