The UNWE Management Team Got Acquainted with the Changes in the Programme Accreditation Procedures

A Seminar on the issues of forthcoming programme accreditations of professional fields and Doctoral programmes of the National Evaluation and Accreditation Agency /NEAA/ was held at the UNWE with the participation of the Rector`s and Dean`s Managing Body of the our university, Vice Deans for Academic Affairs and Research, Secretaries General, Heads of Departments and representatives of Committees working on the accreditations as well as lecturers and officials of the University.

The Vice-Rector for Educational Activities Prof. Dr. Matilda Alexandrova, the Rector of UNWE Prof. Dr. Dimitar Dimitrov, Prof. Dr. Galina Mladenova, Chairperson of the NEAA Standing Committee on Economic Sciences and Management and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Elena Simeonova, Secretary General for Accreditation of UNWE

The main objective of the Seminar was to present to the UNWE team the procedural and substantive changes done by the NEAA in the programme accreditation of professional fields and Doctoral programmes.

"The task is very serious and you all understand that we must prepare very well to obtain the appropriate accreditations. The forthcoming programme accreditations in all Departments of our university and also the Doctoral programmes are the No.1 priority of the University. Because the accreditation depends on the grades, assigned units, quality assessment and budget of the University", said the Rector Dr. Prof. Dimitar Dimitrov at the opening of the Seminar.

The Vice-Rector for Educational Activities and Chairperson of the Accreditation Commission Prof. Dr. Matilda Alexandrova explained that the Seminar will present to the participants the new points of the procedures, such as the timetable, the new documentation to be developed, the new indicators and the necessary primary information to be collected, which is of utmost importance. The National Assessment and Accreditation Agency has introduced a new approach involving the completion of worksheets, the introduction of electronic cloud services requiring the collection of primary information at departmental level and subsequent aggregation at faculty and university level.

"We hope that through the best practices, activities and development trends presented as part of the Strategy of UNWE we will confirm this highest rating for institutional accreditation that we have obtained from the NEAA. We want to show that we can be a benchmark for other universities at the level of professional fields and doctoral programmes in order to defend the prestige of the University as the largest university of economics in Southeastern Europe", said Prof. Alexandrova.

The following presentations were delivered:

Prof. Dr. Galina Mladenova, Chairperson of the NEAA Standing Committee on Economic Sciences and Management, spoke on the Changes in the Programme Accreditation of Professional Fields: Specifics of the Collection and the Presentation of Primary Information and Key Criteria". She also explained the procedural specifics of accreditation of Doctoral programmes.

Prof. Dr. Matilda Alexandrova, Vice Rector for Educational Activities and Chairperson of the Accreditation Commission, delivered a presentation on the Accreditation Procedures for Programme Accreditation of the UNWE Professional Fields - Development Trends, Guidelines for Improvement and Best Practices. She presented the specifics of the quality indicators for each of the 10 standards of the NEAA criteria system and gave concrete guidelines and recommendations to the Departments on how to document and present the self-assessment reports and introduced them to the good practices that would give them competitive advantage. She presented a summary of the strengths and weaknesses of the established quality assurance organization in the professional fields.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Elena Simeonova, Secretary General for Accreditation, delivered presentation on the Programme Accreditation - Problems and Solutions. She highlighted the most important points of the primary information tables and spoke about the problems that have already arisen and their respective solutions.

During the Seminar, various organizational issues were also discussed in relation to the preparation of the self-assessment reports on the forthcoming programme accreditations at the UNWE in the professional fields 3.3. Political Science, 3.6. Law, 3.7. Administration and Management and 3.8. Economics.