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The grant applicant the University of Hohenheim (UH) (DE1) has the oldest and greatest agricultural faculty in Germany and in its nearly 190 years old tradition it built up a wide ranging experience in the field of academic cooperation with international partners. After the breakdown of the Soviet Union the UH founded its Eastern Europe Centre (EEC) in 1995 to establish a scientific network to the agricultural academies and universities in Central and Eastern Europe. Due to this background the UH has a long and successful experience in TEMPUS projects, especially in the TACIS- and CARDS Countries.
The grant applicant is the Rector of the UH Professor Dr. Hans-Peter Liebig. Before he started his Rectorate in 2002 he acted as the Dean of the Agricultural Faculty as a driving force for the structural change of the curricula from a 4.5-years diploma degree course to a 3-years Bachelor and a 2-years Masters system. Currently the UH offers 5 German and 4 English taught M.Sc. courses.
From 2000 to 2003 he was the project leader of the program "Academic Reconstruction of South -Eastern- Europe" supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). In the follow-up to this engagement the Eastern Europe Center coordinates until today several Tempus-projects: CD-JEP-15050-2000; CD-JEP-17089-2002; CD-JEP- 17108-2002; CD-JEP-18069-2003; CD-JEP-19021-2004; CD- JEP-19027-2004; CD-JEP-40035-2005.
Since the members of the Consortium have been working together in all these projects, they have known each other for a number of years and thus have been discussing together the progress achieved within the reform of the teaching structures and contents of their Agricultural Faculties.
With the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences (BOKU) (AT1), Vienna, the University of Hohenheim is linked first through the Euro League for Life Sciences (ELLS) (www.euroleague-study.org) in which both are engaged. Established in 2001 ELLS is a quality network of European universities cooperating in the fields of natural resource management, agriculture-, veterinary-, food-, and environmental sciences. Second, both universities are linked through their common project work in the Balkan region. Due to the central position of Austria in the heart of Europe, the BOKU has always closely cooperated with institutions in Southeast Europe and formalized these academic links via CEEPUS and TEMPUS projects, especially in Bosnia & Herzegovina and Serbia and other cooperation projects in Kosovo, Albania and Macedonia.
The contact person of the BOKU is the head of Quality Management M.A. Thomas Guggenberger, who has large experiences in the design of a university wide quality management system and the development of guidelines and benchmarks in the area of Life Sciences.
For the project it is also a big advantage that the former Rector of the BOKU, Prof. Dr. Leopold März, will contribute his experiences and competencies to the project as an individual expert. Prof. März was Rector of the BOKU form 1993 to 2003, he was Vice-President of the Austrian Rectors' Conference from 1996 to 1998. Since 2003 he is the President of the Association for European Life Science Universities, ICA (previously named Interuniversity Consortium for Agricultural and Related Sciences in Europe). ICA's mission is to stimulate and to support its member institutions in the development of a European dimension in education and research through the development of concerted actions.
The vast experience and the expertise of this university network will be contributed to the project also by Dr. Simon Heath as second individual expert, who is working as Secretary General of the ICA since 2004. In addition, Dr. Heath is honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Aberdeen where he worked from 1992 to 2002 as Director of the Centre for Computer Based Learning in Land Use and Environmental Sciences and where he was responsible for a number of major national and international projects (AFANet).
Ever since its engagement for the Balkan agricultural universities the EEC has been accompanied by the Romanian Expert Dr. Cosmin Salasan from the Agricultural University in Timisoara, the third individual expert, who is fluent in Serbian, Croatian and English. With his wide range of experience in the field of rural development, extension services and agricultural and information management, he will be an asset for the project too. Dr. Salasan knows the project coordinator, Prof. Ivan Pejic, since the yearly organized Rectors' Conferences in the frame of the project "Academic Reconstruction for Southeast Europe". In 2004 they established together the 'Southeast European Core Group' (SEECG, http://www.agroedu.net/see). As an expert Dr. Salasan will be primarily responsible for the installment and the running of the interactive homepage.
From the new EU countries the Slovak Agricultural University in Nitra (SAU) (SK1), mediated by Prof. Dr. Anna Bandlerova will contribute their experience to the project. From 1999 to 2006 Prof. Bandlerova worked as Vice-Rector for International Relations and from 2002 to 2006 as coordinator of educational projects in the frame of EU programmes, for example Erasmus Mundus http://www.agri-econ.ugent.be/IMRD/ .
In two Leonardo da Vinci pilot projects the Eastern Europe Centre of the University of Hohenheim worked successfully together with SAU http://www.fem.uniag.sk/pl2/adler/index.html, http://www.fem.uniag.sk/water_management. The wide range of the project work of the SAU on European level can be found on the homepage of the newly founded Centre for EU Programmes www.fem.uniag.sk/speu , that will be available in English by the time the new project starts.
Next to the three individual experts, the three West European Agricultural Universities will be accompanied in the project by the German Rectors' Conference (HRK) (DE2) too, which is the voluntary association of 262 universities and other higher education institutions in Germany. It is considered as a centre of expertise within the German higher education system for all questions concerning the Bologna Process, quality assurance at universities and reforms such as the implementation of new management structures in the higher education system. In the project the HRK is represented by M.A. Rudolf Smolarczyk, head of the section 'Europe and Central Asia'. Under the titel:"Strengthening Higher Education in South Eastern Europe- Results achieved and Challenges ahead" the HRK has organized at the end of September 2006 in Kotor a conference with 57 participants from different ministries and universities in the region.
As contractor or as partner the HRK has been or is engaged in the projects: JEP-16077-2001; SCMC013B04-2004; SCM-C016A04-2004;SCM-C029A05-2005;SCM-C041A06-2006;
Since years the University of Hohenheim as well as the BOKU has been working together with the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Zagreb (HR1), whose representative, Prof. Dr. Ivan Pejic, will primarily act as coordinator of the agricultural faculties of the region. Prof. Pejic actively accompanied the project "Academic Reconstruction for Southeast Europe" which led to the TEMPUS-CARDS project CD_JEP 17108-2002 (Reform of Agriculture Higher Education in Croatia) for the two agricultural faculties in Croatia. As Vice-Dean of the Faculty Prof. Pejic supported the project all through its duration and afterwards developed together with the EEC the idea for the applied project. Due to this background, Prof. Pejic knows personally all project coordinators who trust him and hold him in high esteem.
At the Agricultural Faculty of the Johann Strossmayer University in Osijek (HR2), which was completely devastated during the war, the Vice-Dean Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sonja Maric coordinated their first TEMPUS project. After finishing this project at both agricultural faculties in Croatia, there is a new enthusiastic approach to continue with the implementation of necessary reforms at the management level of their faculties.
Therefore in the selection of his partners Dr. Pejic pays attention to the right mixture between management and staff members for the project coordination at each agricultural faculty.
At the Agricultural University of Tirana (AUT) (AL1) Prof. Dr. Arben Vercuni acts as a Vice-Rector for International Relations. Since the opening of the Stability Pact for the Balkan countries in 1999, Prof. Vercuni was not only the partner of the EEC in the DAAD supported project, he was also the responsible coordinator for the TEMPUS projects at the AUT which followed the DAAD project (UM-JEP16079-2001, CD-JEP17089-2002, CD-JEP-19021-2004).
At one of the most active faculties in B&H with regard to TEMPUS project implementation and transition towards the Bologna principles, the Agricultural Faculty of the University of Sarajevo (BA1), Prof. Dr. Hamid Custovic is the responsible coordinator for the project. Until today her Faculty has been involved in 8 TEMPUS projects as coordinator or as consortium partner. In the new CD-JEP-40035-2005 Prof. Habul is the responsible coordinator for the three FoA in Sarajevo, Banja Luka and Mostar building a M.Sc. in European Food Science.
In the Agricultural Faculty of the University of Prishtina/Kosovo (1244) the Dean himself, Prof. Dr. Shukri Fetahu is the coordinator of the project. Next to the finished (JEP 17089-2002) and the still ongoing project (JEP 19021-2004) in cooperation with the AUT, the Agricultural Faculty of Prishtina will contribute their experience to the project which was gathered in the regional University Management project JEP 16079-2001. In the EuropeAid project 119605/D/SV/KOS 'Complementary Services for Strengthening Advisory and Support Services Provided to Farmers and Rural Communities in Kosovo' the faculty worked together with the EEC by supporting the extension service of the Agricultural Ministry.
Prof. Dr. Dragan Gjosevski, familiar with the EEC since 1999, will represent the Agricultural Faculty of the Cyril and Method University of Skopje (MK1) in the project. Because the Rector of the University, Prof. Martinovski, has been until autumn 2004 the Dean of the Agricultural Faculty, the applied project will have the necessary institutional support and understanding.
For the two Serbian Agricultural Faculties in Novi Sad (RS1) and Belgrade (RS2), Prof. Dr. Dusan Petric and Prof. Dr Vesna Poleksic will act as responsible coordinators for the project. At the moment they are still connected through the running project JEP 18069-2003 which is coordinated by the EEC and which will be successfully finished in autumn this year. After the break down of the Milosevic regime this project offers both agricultural faculties the first possibility to become familiar with the aims of the Bologna Declaration and the vision of a unique EHEA.
At the Biotechnical Institute of the University of Montenegro, as the major research institution in the field of agriculture, the Vice-Dean Prof. Dr. Biljana Lazovic will act as the responsible local project coordinator entering for the first time the existing educational network. In the project: Creation of a National Qualification Framework in Higher Education the University of Montenegro is accompanied by the HRK in the new CARDS SCM-C041A06-2006.
On their way to Europe all agricultural faculties need a strong support to increase their management capacities especially for a new way of regional cooperation in the direction of a common South-eastern European market with 55 million consumers.
