The project aims at enhancing quality of design and delivery of initial teacher education (ITE) towards increasing the professionalism bar for teaching profession in Kosovo through the implementation of European-inspired quality assurance mechanism that produce teacher professionalism aspired by teaching profession in Kosovo. The two important concepts in this project are 1) internal quality assurance mechanism in Initial Teacher Education (including but not limited to program review, organised monitoring, collecting feedback from students on quality of teaching and learning resources, review of quality of student services, review of managerial practices including staff policies, review of research activity etc, and 2) the development of teacher professionalism. The project makes the link in a way that the proposed internal quality assurance mechanism needs to contribute to the achievement of the desired professionalism in school system. The desired professionalism is referred to the policy set up for the teaching profession which the internal quality assurance system needs to contribute to. In addition, in order to achieve a quality culture in initial teacher education, the project supports the development of management skills and practices to manage internal quality assurance as well as development of teacher educator competencies to be able to deliver quality courses (specified in quality indicators for teaching in teacher education) that are in line with the expectations of professionalism in teaching profession and at the service of school reform. In order to address this, the project provides capacity building and resources for teacher educators and managers of initial teacher education. In this way the project brings all stakeholders together to link to the development of a quality culture in teacher education in Kosovo.

The partnership addresses the important demand of both countries – Albania and Kosovo - for: (1) an improvement of practical skills of graduates of bachelor studies, (2) an early integration of students in the agricultural business practice, (3) the need for developing Lifelong Learning and technology transfer functions of the universities for enterprises and stakeholders in agriculture, livestock and food safety sectors.DualAFS aims for better employability of graduates, knowledge and innovation capacity in agriculture and livestock sciences and improved competitiveness of the agriculture and food business to gain better income in the future. Long term, the aim is to bring prosperity in the remote and rural regions of AL and RKS.DualAFS develops the students’ and other beneficiaries’ knowledge in agriculture, livestock and animal-source product (food) quality and safety. DualAFS internationalizes the education in agriculture, fosters innovations and builds solid bridges and pathways between the stakeholders on different levels. DualAFS also improves the openness of higher education through innovative digital educational materials and supporting the availability of education. To contribute to this, DualAFS will1. develop two innovative model Bachelor curricula, integrating practice accessibility and interactive digital e-learning tools and materials: - Dual BA curricula on Animal Husbandry and Animal-source Food Safety at AUT; - Dual BA curricula on Agribusiness at UoK;2. rise the working life relevance of education by intensified practical training and co-creation of dual study programs with non-university partners from agribusiness, animal production and food safety;3. develop Lifelong Learning capacities and offers in HEIs departments;4. develop E-learning tools for knowledge transfer.

Universities in Kosovo face similar challenges in terms of research activity. They all face low capacity to undertake quality scientific research, as well as they lack the institutional structures and certain policies to support research activity on a constant basis. Project expected results:- An assessment report published in outlining research situation in Kosovo.- Seven (7) research offices will be established, one per each university partner (except UP which already established it). - Respective universities will nominate at least one research coordinator per each research office.- Seven (7) strategic plans developed, one per each university (except UP who has already established it).- Establishment of six (6) scientific journals, one per a research priority in Kosovo.- Establishment of six (6) interinstitutional Scientific Committees, one per each scientific journal.- Establishment and update of a register of reviewers (international reviewers, also local reviewers with established international scientific reputation).- Establishing an inter-institutional Organizational Committee for the Annual Scientific Conference;- Organization of at least one conference during project life in six scientific sessions, with participation of around 200 researchers, from which 100 who present research work;- Minimum 60 papers fulfilling standards selected for publication into the scientific journals.- Policy/regulation on research ethics and integrity adapted in each beneficiary university (eight policies/regulations).- At least eight (8) Research Ethics Committees established and made functional, one per each beneficiary institution (respective universities may establish such committees at faculty levels).- An online open access database developed and launched;- Around 100 researchers, minimum 10 researchers per beneficiary partner will be trained on preparation research articles by meeting criteria of internationally indexed journals.

Unfortunately it has been noticed that the Mathematicians see mathematics as an area of study in its own right. The rest use mathematical formulas as a tool for deriving quantitative conclusions from these relationships. For that purpose, mathematics courses, as they are taught today, are seldom helpful, their importance is not realized by the students & teachers and are often downright destructive. The failure rates among the students are the highest among their curriculum courses, mathematics popularity is among the lowest within the student communities and thus an implementation of methodological and teaching changes of Mathematics is demanded. This project aims to bring a breath of fresh air in the way that the mathematics are taught. The project targets to link Mathematics, taught in the 1st year of BSc degrees in Engineering and Computer Science Departments, with real life problems and try to express these challenges qualitative and quantitative using Mathematics principles. Along its implementation, new Educational trends regarding innovative teaching methods (Problem Based Learning), new delivery tools (ICT use in Higher Education) and experiences linking Mathematics with the Industry & daily life problems that have developed and experienced in the Program countries HEIs will be applied in the course curricula of the participating Partner countries HEIs from Western Balkans and Israel. Project's primary objectives are:- Improve students math level of 1st year Computer Science and Electrical Engineering Departments- Assist student to be able to guess answers without a proof or an exact calculation- Reduce failure rates in math courses- To demonstrate to the students that math is relevant to the program they have chosen to study - Improve students confidence in their ability to learn mathIts outputs / deliverables will be:- Reports - Off line & Online Teaching material and tools - Training workshops for students and teachers

The overall goal of this project is to improve higher education provision in Kosovo and Albania, by building institutional capacity for international relations whereby establishing or making fully functional respective offices (including capacity for project cycle management) in all nine Kosovo and five Albanian consortium members. This project will build institutional capacity for the internationalization of HE in Kosovo and Albania, by improving capacity for project development and management through international expertise made available by European HEIs partnering in this project and exchange of good practice between the consortium members. This will make way for local higher education institutions to engage confidently in various academic and research cooperation initiatives in the region, in Europe and wider.The aim of the project is establish and develop fourteen fully functional offices of international cooperation that will also include the function of project cycle management. Currently, none of the new public universities in Kosovo and Albania has the capacity to fully run an International Cooperation Office, at a time when over 50% of students in European Higher Education institutions are studying or participating in one or another form of international studies and when a significant part of university life takes place in the form of various exchanges and mobilities. This makes it of paramount importance to build respective capacity for all members. This will ultimately contribute substantially to the quality of provision and will enrich university life and experiences of the student population in Kosovo and Albania. Therefore, having in mind the possibility of Erasmus + project to support this idea, we initiated the work as a consortium on developing this idea. The project will have very high importance in addressing increasing isolation, lack of quality international cooperation and lack of project initiatives from Kosovo and Albania universities.