Azərbaycan Dövlət
İqtİsad Unİversİtetİ

An International Evaluation Group has visited UNEC within the Twinning Project on “Support to the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan for Further Adherence of the Higher Education System to the European Higher Education Area” (EHEA).

The main partners of the Project funded by the European Union are the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Finnish Education Evaluation Center (FINEEC) and Estinian Quality Agency for Higher and Vocational Education (EKKA).

UNEC Rector, Professor Adalat Muradov stressed the importance of the Twinning Project launched in 2015 in terms of further development of higher education system in Azerbaijan through the integration into European Higher Education Space.

Head of FINEEC Dr. Helka Kekelainen said that the Project aims at developing higher education system in Azerbaijan through the integration into the European Higher Education Area. EKKA Director Dr. Heli Mattisen expressed gratitude for the condition created to the working group during the evaluation implemented at UNEC that is selected a pilot university in relation with new accreditation rules.

Then a member of the Twinning working group Anar Naghiyev made “An Evaluation Report on Institutional Pilot Assessment”. He noted the assessment is conducted in the fields of strategic planning, management, human resources, education programs, research activity, including teaching and training resources. According to international and domestic experts, the university administration possess clear target and realistic approach about what to achieve and why in terms of UNEC’s strategic choices. The university administration has deep strategic thinking. The experts evaluated membership to international and regional organizations and associations highly and called UNEC’s performances in finding new international partners, providing students with opportunities to exchange a lot its strong side in the national context. At the same time, the presence of highly skilled and professional staff was appreciated at the advantage of UNEC: “The majority of UNEC staff wants to improve the quality of teaching and this is the main factor to assist the university in achieving its goal to become world Class University”.

Successfully applied Differential Salary System, Electronic University Model, e-library and maximum provision of transparency in the training and teaching processes were introduced as the leading experience welcomed by the expert group. It was especially highlighted that UNEC is one of the Azerbaijani universities that transformed the role of academic-support staff to administrational support provision.

Experts’ recommendations also took place in the evaluation report. They recommended to bring forward the urgency of teaching materials and to improve the efficient use of equipment in the process of teaching and learning. UNEC should form a strategy that contribute internationally competitive scientific research and apply procedures to ensure quality of scientific research. To achieve its goal of becoming a research-oriented university it is necessary to provide the financial resources. At the same time, students should be conducted courses and trainings on research methodology and skills.

In general, projects implemented in the direction of becoming the World Class University were assessed highly, taking into account the results of the evaluation on seven criteria.