04 November 2018 - Montenegrin higher education institutions and faculties must step away from personalized management and strive for institutionalized decision-making. They also need to balance between central and decentralized management. These are the conclusions given in the evaluation report on nine Montenegrin higher education institutions, developed by a team of independent international experts, who were engaged by the European University Association (EUA) within the Programme for the Institutional Evaluation.
“The new analysis was conducted in order to see whether the recommendations given in the last evaluation were successfully implemented. Compared to 2014, there are visible and positive changes in the legislative and financial context. The current situations look promising but unstable as well. Having in mind the fact that the reform is ongoing, Montenegro might be able to achieve significant progress in the area of higher education through the adoption of innovative and proven approaches already used by the rest of the European Higher Education Area. However, the reform process is incomplete and sometimes not radical enough,” suggests the Report signed by Thomas Ekman Jorgensen of the European University Association.
The existing decentralized and often personalized managing structures, the Report says, represent a serious limitation to the institution’s capability for making and implementing strategic decisions in all activities, which was also mentioned 4 years ago.
“Smaller institutions and faculties partially or fully rely on the part-time staff who work in other Montenegrin higher education institutions or abroad,” the Report says.
It is also noted that classes in English still represent a problem for the incoming mobility even though there is a possibility of having accredited English programmes. Also, it might be good if Montenegro would totally accede to the Erasmus program, so students could have their civic and social activities recognized as “practical education”, the Report recommends.
Source: Cafe del Montenegro
