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The Steering Board of the Higher Education Accreditation Agency of Republika Srpska held its 19^th regular session on the 30^th of September 2019. The meeting was chaired by the Chairman of the Board, professor Mile Dmicic PhD.

The members of the Steering Board are familiarised with more information relevant for the work of the Agency. In particular, they commented on the information on the current procedures for accreditation of higher education institutions and study programs, after which certain conclusions were reached.

The Agency actively continued work on improving the information system. In addition to the software applications that have been in use for several years, the Agency has created an application for facilitating reviewers' work when writing review reports for study programs that higher education institution has candidated for accreditation, what will be implemented soon.

Delegation of the RSHEAA, headed by the director, Biljana Vojvodic PhD, visited the Aragon Agency for Quality Assurance and Strategic Foresight in Higher Education (ACPUA) in Zaragoza (Spain) on September 25^th to 26^th, where a cooperation agreement was signed two agencies.

The agreement, which defines the two agencies' shared commitment to developing a culture of quality in higher education, was signed by ACPUA director, professor Antonio Serrano Gonzales (Antonio Serrano González ) PhD and director RSHEAA Biljana Vojvodic PhD.

The agreement also predicts co-operation in the development of standards and criteria in the field of quality assurance in higher education, possible exchanges of experts and reviewers, as well as agency staff, and mutual participation in external evaluation procedures in the status of observer.

The Minister of the Ministry for Science and Technological Development, Higher Education and Information Society of Republic of Srpska, Srdjan Rajcevic, was a guest in the program of Dnevnik + of Radio Television of Republic of Srpska on the 19^th of July 2019.

The Minister stated for Dnevnik + that the Government of the Republic of Srpska on the 17^th of July 2019 considered the situation in higher education and concluded that the current situation is not satisfactory and requires necessary changes. "It has been 25 years since the Dayton Peace Agreement was signed, and we have now matured, as a society, for a fundamental transformation of the education system. We must reform the entire higher education system and make fundamental changes, first and foremost through the normative regulation of this area in a completely different and new way to take over all the necessary operational activities that will primarily lead to the merger of the economy and the academic community, that is, the economy, industry and scientific and research community within the academic community”, the minister said.

The entire reform process has been conceptualized and will last until 2035. From 2035, a stable, developed higher education system is expected to be fully operational for both, the global economy and the economy of Republic of Srpska. The first improvements will be seen during 2019 when the new Law on Higher Education is to be discussed.

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Source: RTRS