Universities in Armenia are facing a challenge of creating comparable quality assurance systems promoting academic recognition as well as competitiveness

of the national credentials at the international level. Development of a quality culture has been set as a priority strategic goal in the strategy of the target universities. This makes it crucial to move from mere inspections scratching the surface of the quality issues to a deeper processes promoting quality at both institutional and programme levels. This shift demands changes in daily practices of all the units concerned with education quality provisions from presently more or less accidentally- and individually-oriented work processes towards professionalized ones applying rules of quality assurance leading to recognition of credentials at international level. In order to make those efforts comprehensive and coherent it is crucial to ensure an adequate model, policies and organizational structures. This innovation will require each PCI to develop its own self-assessment model providing for measurable goals and widening overall participation of stakeholders. Considering self-assessment to be at the heart of quality provisions the following activities are to be undertaken within the following two years to promote establishment of quality culture at target PCIs. WORKPACKAGE 1: Fact Finding at Partner Institutions (months 1-4) First, a systemic self-assessment at the target universities is essential. Along with the local practices, benchmarking of the best practices at the European level will be conducted. The resultant study will be the basis for developing a draft model for both institutional and programme self-assessment systems. The fact-finding will be conducted through the document analyses and a questionnaire designed by the Work Group (WG) involving both PC and EU institutions during the 1st and 2nd months. This will enable the PCIs to better and deeper understand the underlying processes and to devise procedures, criteria, standards and mechanisms more applicable in the case of a developing country while keeping in mind internationalization. The questionnaire will contain the following aspects leading to valid and reliable criteria: programme (design and approval, learning outcomes, teaching and learning, student assessment, teacher assessment, teacher professional development, resources, monitoring and feedback), institutional (institutional capacity, financial aspects, knowledge management, information management and transparency, student support services, internal quality assurance system). Throughout the months 2, 3 and 4, the PCIs will conduct a survey and provide a report on the state of affairs. The WG will study the results and identify the areas in need of improvement at the conference held at Universit du Maine. The qualitative part of the survey will provide for a more grounded approach, enabling establishment of the criteria, standards and procedures for self-assessment peculiar to the particular situation. The facts and evidences revealed through the study will feed into a new set of criteria, standards and procedures for institutional and programme self-assessment ensuring coverage of the areas in need of improvement. The target group involved in this activity is institution and programme top management, QA officers, ANQA experts, EU experts, teaching staff, and students. WORKPACKAGE 2: Development of self-assessment methodologies, mechanisms and tools (months 512)

Taking the ESG as a starting point the WG, with broad involvement of stakeholders, will develop policies, procedures, tools and mechanisms for institutional and programme self-assessment. As a result, evaluation forms, review report forms, peer review forms, alumni forms, teaching staff and administrative evaluation forms, questionnaires for surveys, university self-study forms and any additional materials deemed necessary will be developed. Following the development of the selfassessment model, each PCI will undertake a try-out of the model. The current phase will culminate in the evaluation of the newly developed model by a group of stakeholders including ANQA, and EU experts through a site-visit to PCIs. During the site visits, the work group will identify performance gaps and make final benchmarking. Based on the try out results the self-assessment model will be redeveloped and a progress report based on the activities undertaken in the work package will be jointly produced. WORKPACKAGE 3: University Quality Assurance Infrastructure (month 11-12) The WG along with the local managing groups will define the necessary equipment, infrastructure and office inventory to run the self-assessment system effectively. To build on the quality assurance system and facilitate the self-assessment procedures each PCI will receive the necessary equipment, employ the necessary staff, and legitimize the functioning of the center. EU partners will provide the necessary guidelines to ensure compliance with the ESG standards therefore comparability and internationalization. WORKPACKAGE 4: Training materials (months 13-15) The WG and the local managing groups will develop a training programme for training the QA staff, local staff and students and formulate job responsibilities for respective employees. They will decide on the competencies, define task distribution over EU partners and arrange the development of the respective training materials. The following list of training topics has a preliminary character but most of the topics will be touched in the training sessions: quality assurance concepts and practices, using selfassessment mechanisms to enhance educational provisions, producing a self-assessment report (writing style, the role of evidences and supporting statements and the like), interpreting the results of selfassessment, and analyzing the data. WORKPACKAGE 5: Trainings (month 16) The EU partners and PCIs will conduct trainings in two series: training of trainers will take place in Dusseldorf at ASIIN and training of stakeholders involved in the QA process (students, teaching staff) will take place in Poland at WUT. The experience shows that more often than not the trainings delivered by the international experts provide only for the surface scratch while leaving the in-depth elements so crucial for deeper insights untouched, since they tackle the issues from their own frames of reference and culture. On the other hand, it is peculiar to the local experts, if trained the right way to be able to reach the audience and reveal the elements crucial from the national frames of reference and culture. Therefore, the trained experts during the first round of trainings will establish the necessary background to facilitate the self-assessment procedures at each PCI by delivering in-house trainings.

The two training sessions will be designed for 5 participants from each institution, 2 participants from the MoES and 5 participants from the ANQA. 52 participants in the first round and 32 in the second round will be attending the courses. The trainings will last 2 and 1 weeks respectively and will have pre and post training evaluations. The feedback will be included in the materials intended for further developments, publication and dissemination. The target groups will include QA heads/staff, Deans and faculty members, QA officers at ANQA and MoES, students. A detailed progress report based on the activities undertaken during the capacity-building phase will be jointly produced. To provide for dissemination and sustainability the trainers trained through this phase will conduct a series of workshops training at least 150 staff members at each PCI. WORKPACKAGE 6: Integration of the newly developed self-assessment system (months 17-24) The launch of the self-assessment integration phase will be marked by the PCIs developing and submitting an individual time-bound integration plan. The plan will include tasks and measurable deliverables for the staff involved in QA activities. After internal approval by the top-level management, each PCI will develop a strategy paper and a work plan and submit to the WG for feedback and recommendations. The individual integration plan will also consider the issues of sustainability and dissemination. Within the integration phase, a pilot self-assessment of the target institutions and programmes will be conducted. During the months 18-19 the PC institutions will conduct selfassessment applying the newly developed model. Meanwhile, the trained trainers will conduct in-house workshops for disseminating the experience and the QA knowledge obtained at EU institutions. The pilot of the self-assessment model will culminate in producing a self-assessment report to the group of experts. WORKPACKAGE 7: Audit of the newly established self-assessment system (months 21-22) Three expert panels will be set up to conduct the site-visits during month 22. The expert panels will be set taking into consideration the conflict of interests factor so prevalent in small countries. The expert panels including EU partners, ANQA experts, the trained staff and students will conduct the site visit; accumulate the data for further evaluation, analyses and refinement of the developed system. The EU partners and ANQA experts will travel to PCIs and be actively involved in the analysis and refinement activities. Following the site visits, the experts will deliver a final report. The WG will evaluate the effects of the newly developed model and integrate the changes. A progress report based on the activities undertaken in the work package will be jointly produced. WORCKPACKAGE 8: Dissemination The dissemination will be two-fold targeting both internal level at each PCI and external level involving the national level. The activities include but are not limited to in-house workshops conducted by PCIs, ANQA and MoES, a final conference organized for the target public at large, publishing the brochure on University Self-Assessment System for Developing Countries, making the project report public, and other PR activities conducted at each PCI, ANQA and MoES.

The in-house workshops will be conducted by the trained trainers targeting larger audiences at each PCI including the staff and students. MoES and ANQA in their turn will conduct respective in-house workshops. The results of the project will feed into a brochure, which will be published and presented at a final conference in Armenia. The final conference will have the task to disseminate the project outcomes and outputs among other institutions with regional and national outreach. During the conference, the PCIs QA officers and ANQA experts will report the results of the implementation phase. The EU partners will report on their conclusions. The best practices will be defined and made publicly available. A project website ensuring organization of the activities and dissemination in a due and timely manner will be arranged for as a dissemination tool. WORKPACKAGE 10: Quality Control and Monitoring (months 11, 22) To ensure accuracy and effectiveness of the project management and implementation a monitoring by EU experts will be invited during the months 11 and 22. Moreover, the site-visits to the PCIs conducted during the years 1 and 2 will ensure project implementation in a due manner and, therefore, quality provisions. WORKPACKAGE 11: Project management (months 1-24) The management will be organized in a double-loop: PCI level and general project level. The local management will be conducted through the local management groups (LMG) (3-4 members per group) at each PCI. The LMGs will ensure smooth flow, accuracy and timely implementation of the project at the local level. General project management is carried out by the representatives from KLU and ANQA taking care of the decision-making, implementation, sustainability and dissemination of the project.