Montenegro

Agency for Control and Quality Assurance of Higher Education in Montenegro (ACQAHE)

Street name: Mihaila Lalića 1
Postal code and City: 81000 Podgorica
Country: Montenegro
Phone/Fax: +38220675359/+38220511297
E-mail: milica.kavedzic@akokvo.me
Website: www.akokvo.me
Introductory presentation:
AKOKVO
Contact person: Milica Kavedžić
Function of contact person: Advisor for International Relations
Founding year: 2017
Legal status:
Public body
International links and membership: Affiliate member ENQA


ACQAHE was established by Government of Montenegro in 2017 according to the Law on Higher Education. It counts 15 employees and consists of two departments: Quality Control, and Quality Assurance and Research. Ten of the employees are coordinators of the evaluation procedures.

The amended Law on Higher Education recognizes three types of external evaluation: accreditation of study programs, reaccreditation of institutions and accreditation of life-long learning programs, which Agency is obliged to implement based on European Standards and Guidelines.
According to the Law, the director of Agency, also nominated by Government, has the mandate to select the experts for panels, coordinate the process and make decisions on accreditation of study programs and reaccreditation of institutions based on expert panels’ recommendations. Regarding organizational issues, the agency is governed by the Managing Board, which counts three members nominated by Government- two representatives from the Government and one from the public university.

The overall objective of the ACQAHE is to ensure credible, internationally recognized and competitive Montenegrin higher education system, which will contribute to progress of Montenegrin economy and society and to the improvement of the quality of life of Montenegrin citizens. Our aim is to fully apply European Standards and Guidelines in the system through defining evaluation procedures, rendering independent and objective decisions and ensuring its constant improvement. The final confirmation of the process is membership in the European quality assurance structures (ENQA and EQAR).

ACQAHE’s function is to carry out activities regarding quality assurance of HE in Montenegro.

The scope of ACQAHE activities is prescribed by the Law on Higher Education: ACQAHE
1) conducts external evaluation procedures and issues the certificates on accreditation of the study programme and reaccreditation of HE institutions based on evaluation reports;
2) adopts standards for evaluation in accordance with standards in the EHEA;
3) conducts a periodic assessment of quality of licensed higher education institutions;
4) establishes the list of experts for external evaluations;
5) proposes measures for quality improvement of higher education to Government based on evaluation reports;
6) manages a register of accredited study programmes and reaccredited institutions.