REGIONAL COOPERATION AND ECONOMIC INTEGRATION

CEFTA-2006 AND ANHANCING COMPETITIVENESS OF THE REGION - SOME SECTORAL ASPECTS
Education (hereinafter: the Law) the field of higher education is of special importance for
the Republic of Serbia as it is a part of international, and especially European educational
and scientific field. Three subjects are responsible for the Law’s implementation: the
National Council for Higher Education, the Commission for Accreditation and Quality
Assurance and the Ministry.
Immediately after it was set up, the National Council for Higher Education and the
Commission for Accreditation and Quality Assurance started making norms and
standards, so that the accreditation of higher education institutions and study programmes
in compliance with Bologna Declaration could start as soon as possible. The European
Qualifications Framework was taken as a point of departure, as well as the experience of
majority European countries signatories of Bologna Declaration, with the aim to adjust it
and implement as much as possible in the system of higher education in Serbia. The National
Council approved the following acts on October 20, 2006: Standards for Accreditation of
Higher Education Institutions and Study Programmes, Standards for Self-certification and
Assessment of Quality of Higher Education Institutions, and the Standards and Procedures
for External Quality Assurance of Higher Education Institutions. On December 11, 2006,
the Commission for Accreditation and Quality Assurance became a full member of
INQAAHE (International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education).
(Grupa autora, 2007, pp.3).
The novelties in the Law are a consequence of the legislator’s intention for the system of
higher education in Serbia to become a part of international, especially European educational
area, as well as to enable Serbia’s institutions to enter the process of acknowledgement of
higher education qualifications in Europe. They are mostly reflected in types and levels of
studies, introducing the European credit transfer system (ECTS – a system of unique point
scoring for students’ study obligations), creating study programmes that are compatible
and comparable to study programmes organized/carried out at higher education institutions
in other European countries, and providing quality of higher education. The innovations
mentioned are indispensable assumptions for synchronization with European system of
higher education and improvement of academic mobility of professors and students, which
were postulated in the Law, article IV, as one of the principles of higher education.
When it comes to types and levels of studies, the Law makes difference between three levels
of studies. First level studies are basic academic studies and basic professional studies.
Second level studies are graduate academic studies – master, specialist professional studies
and specialist academic studies, whereas doctoral academic studies represent third level
studies. The previous law did not offer professional studies, master studies, nor doctoral
studies, but only basic academic studies, postgraduate studies and doctoral dissertation.
Basic academic studies may last three or four years, whereas master studies last a year or
two, depending on the duration of basic studies. More precisely, the volume of studies is
expressed with the sum of ECTS credits, which is yet another novelty in the Law. Namely,
a certain number of ECTS credits are assigned to every course within a study programme,
whereas the volume of the studies is indicated with the sum of ECTS credits.
Legal solutions that are given, seen in providing high quality, transparency, measurability of
study work-load and introduction of European credit transfer system, are all in the function
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