Background of TEMPUS 17028-02 Project

Background of the Tempus JEP 17028-02 Project

Partner country problem and needs analysis
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) has passed through a decade of extremely harsh conditions and is in transition now. Major deterioration is present in all aspects of life, and, among them, in the education system at all levels. At the university level, we are faced with the following problems: enrolled students are poorly prepared for the coursework; laboratory and computer equipment are inadequate in quantity and quality; as a result of mentioned difficulties, almost all of the courses are purely theoretical. Our universities, which used to be ranked very high in the world a decade ago, are in decay. It is our aim to restructure curricula in order to resolve the mentioned problems at the level of Departments of Electronics. We would also like to achieve that the new curriculum allows integration into the European family (Bologna declaration), and to provide the educational model for all other departments of technical faculties in the region to start implementing similar methods.



		Background of the Tempus JEP 17028-02 Project Partner country problem and needs analysis Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) has passed through a decade of extremely harsh conditions and is in transition now. Major deterioration is present in all aspects of life, and, among them, in the education system at all levels. At the university level, we are faced with the following problems: enrolled students are poorly prepared for the coursework; laboratory and computer equipment are inadequate in quantity and quality; as a result of mentioned difficulties, almost all of the courses are purely theoretical. Our universities, which used to be ranked very high in the world a decade ago, are in decay. It is our aim to restructure curricula in order to resolve the mentioned problems at the level of Departments of Electronics. We would also like to achieve that the new curriculum allows integration into the European family (Bologna declaration), and to provide the educational model for all other departments of technical faculties in the region to start implementing similar methods.









		Faced with the described situation, universities in FRY have to change as soon as possible their curricula according to the requirements imposed by dramatic changes in the society and rapidly changing requirements of industry. The general trends are identified and tested in the developed European countries. Our Faculties currently provide courses (albeit primarily of theoretical content), at undergraduate and graduate level in almost all areas of electronics, telecommunications and control systems. We aim to develop undergraduate and graduate programs for electronic engineers adapting the content, structure and methods to provide that new programs are compatible with the ECTS. The changes will encompass the entire program of studies at the partner departments. New teaching methodologies will be introduced, with strong emphasis on practical training of the students, and mandatory student projects in all of the advanced courses. The modular structure will be introduced and the new curricula will enable student mobility (EU or regional) with full recognition of previous work. The information and communication technology will be widely used to enable students to have access to all information about their courses, grades, lab sessions, etc. Quality control mechanisms will be introduced in order to ensure that the level of teaching at all partner institutions remains at the prescribed level. In line with the objectives of the Bologna Declaration, this will be the first step to restructure the curricula at all technical faculties of all regional partner universities. The regional consortium members were chosen so that all universities in Serbia that offer B. Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering are included, as well as representatives of local industry. Contracting institution was chosen to be an institution offering similar educational level in an EU country (Greece) which, through its closeness to FRY (both geographically and historically) can best understand the problems FRY institutions face. The Technical University of Madrid was chosen since it offers similar degrees as FRY universities, and shares the problem of teaching in a language not widely spoken in Europe . Previous co-operation between the consortium members represents a sound background for the realization of this project. Universities in Yugoslavia have very strong mutual connections. This especially applies for electrical engineering faculties, since the Faculty of Electrical Engineering form the University of Belgrade extensively helped foundation of the electrical engineering schools at the University of Niš and the University of Novi Sad. There is already in place some sort of mobility of the teachers between these Universities, which will hopefully increase in frequency after the proposed project is completed. Formal co-operation with EU Universities is unfortunately not intensive, due to the long period under sanctions. However, there are at almost every EU University graduates from the regional partner Universities, who continuously provide us with information on the need and methods of updating our curricula. All of the consortium member institutions have experience with TEMPUS and/or other international and national projects. Teaching curricula in all of the member institutions extensively cover the area of electronics. For all of the consortium members it is specific that the language in which the teaching process is performed is not widely spoken in Europe, thus they share common problems.