Pursuant to Article 26 and 27 of the Law on Higher Education in the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton (HNC Official Gazette, no. 04/12) and Article 18 of the Rulebook of accreditation of higher education institutions and study programs (Official Gazette of HNC, no. 04/14 ) accreditation is a procedure in which the following is determined: meeting the universally accepted standards and norms with regard to the organization of work, available space, material-technical and human resources, the quality of the educational process, curricula and qualifications, and occupations for higher education, which results in the issuance of the decision on the accreditation of higher education institutions by the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of HNC's. The Ministry shall issue a decision on accreditation based on recommendations issued by the Commission of international and local experts in the field of higher education, who were appointed on the proposal of the Agency for Development of Higher Education and Quality Assurance of BiH (HEA).
The Committee consists of one member of the academic community in BiH, an international expert working in the field of higher education, experts from the labour market or the economy and one student who assess the fulfilment of the criteria for accreditation of higher education institutions.
Criteria for accreditation of higher education institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina
are:
- Development and strategy of higher education institutions;
- Management, internal quality assurance and quality culture;
- Procedures for quality assurance of study programs;
- Procedures for student assessment;
- Human resources;
- The quality of natural resources;
- Information systems;
- Presentation of information to the public;
- International cooperation.
A higher education institution assesses itself the degree of compliance of each of the criteria and on that basis it makes self-evaluation report submitted to the Ministry together with other documents. The Ministry shall submit self-evaluation report to the Commission for Accreditation selected on the proposal of the HEA, and after reading the report of the Commission shall schedule a visit to the higher education institution.
During the visit, which mostly takes two to three days, members of the Commission hold numerous meetings with representatives of all stakeholders in higher education institution. Members of the Commission meet with the management of the institution, the members of the team for making self-evaluation reports, administrators, professors, lecturers and assistants, students, alumni, representatives of the labour market, community representatives and all others who can get useful information about the level of quality of the higher education institutions.
After the meetings, each member of the Commission evaluates each of the criteria for accreditation according to the indicators. None of the criteria cannot be evaluated as unfulfilled. Commission at the end of the last day gives an oral notice of the previous visits without reference to the result, and the final report is submitted later by unanimously adopted and detailed recommendation on accreditation. The outcome of the accreditation can be accreditation, partial accreditation and non-accreditation.
Higher education institution College "Logos Centre" in Mostar submitted the request for institutional accreditation number: 546-2 / 14 to the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of HNC's on 26 September 2014. Ministry forwarded the submitted application and all supporting documents to the Agency for Development of Higher Education and Quality Assurance of Bosnia and Herzegovina with a proposal for the appointment of members of the Commission experts.
The Agency has appointed a Committee of national and international experts for quality assessment and audit of the recommendation on accreditation 24.02.2015. , and the decision on the appointment to the Ministry 03.03.2015.godine.
After examining the self-evaluation report the Commission scheduled accreditation visit to the institution on 11 and 12 May 2015. During the accreditation visit, members of the Commission have had discussions with the management of the institution, the members of the team for making self-evaluation reports, administrators, professors, lecturers and assistants, students, alumni, representatives of the labour market, all with the aim of checking and proving the fulfilment of the criteria for accreditation.
Based on the Report of the Commission of experts College "Logos Centre" in Mostar meet the prescribed requirements for accreditation, the Agency for Development of Higher Education and Quality Assurance of Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted the recommendation number: 05-33-1-37-6 / 15 of 29th June 2015 year, and on that basis College "Logos Centre" in Mostar received a decision on institutional accreditation from the Ministry of Education, Science, culture and Sports of Herzegovina-Neretva Canton no 05-03-40-2016-7 / 15 of 07th July 2015.
Successfully carried out accreditation process confirmed the quality and reputation of College "Logos Centre" as the best higher educational institution in the region. In addition, with the accreditation we have become part of the European higher education area and we enabled our students and professors the mobility through the provision and identical criteria and the quality of work existing on European universities. Accreditation of College “Logos Centre”enables easy identification and recognition of diplomas of Logos throughout Europe as it guarantees the implementation of the Bologna and European standards in the process of higher education.
Accreditation is a process that has the standardization of the organization of work, quality of spatial, material and human resources, the quality of the educational process, curricula and qualifications, and occupations for higher education as its results. Academic degrees, professional and scientific degrees and diplomas issued by higher education institutions without accreditation will not be recognized (Law on Higher Education HNC).
The main purpose of accreditation is to ensure harmonized level of quality among higher education institutions and to harmonize standards in higher education in Bosnia and Herzegovina with those of the European Union and other countries in Europe which apply ECTS system. The harmonization achieved through accreditation provides recognition of credits acquired at higher education institutions in BiH everywhere in Europe, and facilitated recognition of competences and diplomas at European universities.
