Republic Of Bulgaria

The project

The project Information System On pre-Bologna Academic Qualifications – ISOBAQ, is co-financed by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, sub-programme “KA3: Support for Policy reform”, sub-priority „NARIC activities 2014-2016”.

Main goal

The main goal of the project is to create an online information system with structured information, including real samples of higher education qualifications from the period before the implementation of the Bologna architecture and description of the national legislation, regarding the level and the academic rights for access to further studies and facilitation of employment. The information system will contribute to enhancing the fair recognition and evaluation in each receiving country from the European region and the countries ratified the Lisbon convention.

Specific objectives

• Technological development of flexible, user-friendly online information system with advanced features for entry of data, search tools and display of the available information.
• Uploading a maximum possible number of samples of documents from the participating in the consortium ENIC/NARIC centers and their detailed presentation and description.
• Providing detailed information about the higher education systems of the countries of the participating ENIC/NARIC centers.
• Creating a useful tool for the entire ENIC / NARIC Network, which can be used for comparison, evaluation, transparency and fair recognition of qualifications for higher education, for which the information is insufficient.

Target groups

• National centres for academic recognition and mobility from the ENIC-NARIC Network;
• All interested stakeholders, using the expertise and capacity of the individual National centres for academic recognition and mobility from ENIC-NARIC Network.

Project duration

The project started in April 2016 and was finalised successfully in March 2018 with a total duration of 24 months.

Project results

• Established information system, providing access to structured information with scanned samples of documents for higher education from the period before the introduction of the Bologna architecture.
• Enhanced fair assessment and recognition of completed higher education before the Bologna process and thus facilitating the labor and academic mobility of holders of higher education who are still of active working age.
• Improved the quality and efficiency of work of experts responsible for the procedures for recognition of qualifications in the ENIC/NARIC Network.

Main activities

1. Activities on implementation of the goals:
   • Activity 1: Gathering information about the national legislation.
   • Activity 2: Gathering existing samples of documents for completed higher education from the period before the Bologna process.
   • Activity 3: Designing, drafting and creating of the online information system.
   • Activity 4: Actual uploading of the information collected at Activity 1 and pre-Bologna samples processed and scanned at Activity 2.
   • Provision of access to the built-in information system of National centers for academic recognition and mobility from the ENIC-NARIC Network.
2. Information and publicity: promoting the objectives and results of the project.
3. Project management: monitoring, coordination and operational control over project activities, verification of costs incurred, preparation and summarising of financial and technical reports concerning the project.

Consortium and Project Team

The project was implemented by a consortium of seven national NARIC centers from Bulgaria, Romania, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland and Croatia and the ENIC centre of Armenia.

Each consortium partner is involved in the project with a team of professionals with multiyear experience and high expertise in the field of academic recognition.

News

03.08.2017 Second organizational meeting on ISOBAQ project consortium - 27.06.2017 - Copenhagen, Denmark
NACID representatives organized and held together with their partners the second organizational meeting of the consortium on the project "Information System On Pre-Bologna Academic Qualifications" (ISOBAQ)

On 27 June 2017, after the end of the annual ENIC-NARIC network meeting in Copenhagen (Denmark), the NACID representatives organized and held together with their partners the second organizational meeting of the consortium on the project "Information System On Pre-Bologna Academic Qualifications" (ISOBAQ) funded under the Erasmus + Program.

The meeting was attended by representatives from the seven consortium partner centers from Bulgaria, Romania, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland and Croatia.

During this year’s meeting was presented in details the developed and functioning information system which is due to be uploaded with all diploma samples from the participating countries with the corresponding descriptions. Complete data input methodology was presented and described. An online demonstration of information and data input and uploads of graphics files into the system was presented, during which the core functionalities of the system were discussed.

The financial implementation of the project and the achieved results until the moment were presented and discussed at the consortium meeting too. The parameters of the project, the deadlines, the minimum and maximum scope of its final results, the rules for reporting of costs and other issues concerning the procedures for presenting the collected information and reporting the activities were also discussed.

A representative of the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) also took part in the meeting and thus obtained a first-hand information about the current project implementation results, provided answers to certain technical questions and gave important explanations and valuable remarks regarding the efficient utilization of the approved funds.

The possibilities for widening the geographic scope of key project results were also discussed, especially the options for including samples from countries outside the consortium but still within the original financial resources, with a corresponding increase of the duration of the project in case of such widening. It was agreed that the Bulgarian side as a coordinator will explore the possibilities for such an extension of the project results, with a request for an increase of the project duration by no more than six months if necessary, and will notify the partners in the consortium about the final result.

11.07.2016 First organizational meeting on the project ISOBAQ
The first organizational meeting on the project ISOBAQ - Information System with document templates for higher education before the Bologna Process took place successfully.

On June 21, 2016 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands took place the first organizational meeting of the consortium of the project "Information system of higher education diplomas before the Bologna Process" (Information System On pre-Bologna Academic Qualifications - ISOBAQ), funded by the European Commission under the program “Erasmus +” priority “KA3: Support for Policy reform”, Sub-priority “NARIC activities 2014-2016”. The meeting was organized by NACID as a leading institution in the project.

The representatives of NACID informed the participants, representing the six partner centers from Romania, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland and Croatia about the main activities of the project, the expected results and the contribution of each partner. The schedule of activities during the 18-month implementation period was also discussed, as well as the financial parameters and other issues of mutual interest.

Several bilateral agreements were signed with partner centres, the immediate tasks due to be run at the start of the project activities in 2016 were specified, and the mechanism for financial provision of the partners’ activities was clarified. The participants also discussed the scope of the information that has to be collected, processed and included in the future information system, the technical requirements and the necessary technological functionalities of the system as well as the duration and the characteristics of each of the six stages of the project.

The scheduled end of the project is September 30, 2017.

The meeting was constructive and passed in collegial and friendly atmosphere. The next forum of the consortium was agreed to be held in July 2017 in Copenhagen, Denmark, along with the 24th annual meeting of the ENIC-NARIC networks.

Access to the ISOBAQ system

Individual access to the ISOBAQ system is available to all National Centres for Academic Recognition and Mobility of the countries, which had ratified the Lisbon recognition Convention (the ENIC-NARIC network), and thus all other competent authorities, persons and stakeholders in the corresponding countries.
More information about ENIC-NARIC network

To the ISOBAQ system (restricted access)