Republic Of Bulgaria

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.

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.