Considering Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina’s will to access the EU, and the existing gaps with the EU aquis, the main aim of our project is to develop innovative post-graduate and Master’s degree education programmes in veterinary public health and food safety for the first time in English, to bring these countries closer to EU standards in matter of education and public health. The specific objectives are to improve: i) the quality of higher education through innovative teaching/learning techniques and establishing English courses; ii) the knowledge and skills in disciplines relevant to public health, veterinary medicine and animal production, reducing the discrepancy between training and work market demands; iii) the international relationships as well as the networks among institutions, agencies and universities; iv) the digital transformation. The innovative didactical activities provided are Teach the Teacher method, b-learning (multimedia classroom upgrade), summer schools, e-platform creation, and international weeks. The beneficiary for the project will be 28 university lecturers and 24 students from the 4 partner country universities, university lectures’ colleagues, future students, the 4 university communities, and, indirectly, the stakeholders and citizens of the involved countries. The expected results will be: the creation of the post-graduate school and a Master, the digital modernization of the universities and their international activity improvement, the enhancement of the teaching activity quality, the creation of new modules or curricula on veterinary public health and food safety, the training of a critical mass of experts with up to dating knowledge, and skills and the improvement of the citizens and legislators’ awareness in these fields. All project outcomes will contribute to bring Western Balkan area closer to EU public health standards and will empower universities as key actors of change in green and digital transition.

<< Background >>HURBE improves the quality of education in Bosnian organizations by focusing on curriculum development, modernization of HEIs and strengthening the relationship between HEIs and the urban and health environment. It transfers knowledge and skills to future actors of urban transformation, where HEI staff members work on the preparation of future architects, urban planners, and engineers that participate in the design process of protecting and ensuring the health and wellbeing of people in cities.<< Objectives >>1. Analysis and introduction of credit transfer.2. Integrate innovative educational approaches by focusing on decisive content3. Develop new courses (in classroom and online) in the field of Healthy Urban Environment4. Upgrade HEIs facilities (laboratories) to enhance relevance with labour market and society.5. Increase cooperation and exchange between academic staff, students, policymakers and labour market.<< Implementation >>After the needs analysis and HEIs content comparisons, the training activities took place to enhance capacity building processes, focusing on the Healthy Urban Environment field, innovation in teaching, and internationalization tools. Two accredited courses were installed in each Bosnian HEI. Two MOOCs were created, involving academics and experts. Three laboratories were installed, and their activities were linked to the didactic courses and to the external stakeholders.<< Results >>1.Creation of an interdisciplinary national network with competencies and facilities (i.e., 3 functioning laboratories operating in the Healthy Urban Environment field).2.Establishment of 3 groups with tools to sustain the outcomes beyond the funding period (i.e., 2 accredited courses, 2 MOOCs, labs, internships, and upgraded frameworks).3.Enhancemed of link with stakeholders from labour market, public authorities and NGOs through strategies and agreements integrated in project activities.

IQPharm project is centered on raising the quality and modernization of pharmacy studies at public universities in Bosnia and Herzegovina including reinforcement of semi-structured experiential education (EE) in compliance with EU standards and regulations of higher education for regulated professions. The IQPharm objectives are:1. Development of academic staff professional and pedagogical competencies for more interactive and practical approach to delivery/teaching and assessment of the existing pharmacy curricula through the exchange of best practices between partner and programme institutions and active involvement of major stakeholders in real sector.2. Improvement of courses delivery through the introduction of assessment tests – Knowledge Retention Evaluation Framework (KREF) and Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) for pharmacy students.3. Improvements in experiential education (EE) educators’ (pharmaceutical professionals) training and development of E-platform for EE management and administration.The introduction of new tools for the quality assessment of study programs (KREF) will enable the development of evidence-based recommendations for changes, modification and innovations of the existing methods of knowledge transfer, teachers' didactic approaches and syllabi. The introduction of new system of knowledge assessment gained through the EE course (OSCE) will set equal standards at the national level for learning outcomes of pharmacy graduates. The E-platform will ensure modernization of EE monitoring.Intensive cooperation with EU partner institutions and mobilization of all relevant stakeholders in BiH is anticipated to explore potential new models and approaches to innovative teaching, learning and assessment methods, achieving high standards of educational process and learning outcomes in accordance with the labour market demands.