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.

Albania, as Partner Country, aims to improve the quality of its Higher Education system in order to be more responsive to the labour market needs and requirements by strengthening technology transfer and cooperation with businesses. The need is to qualify a service for the Albanian Universities (HEIs) third mission’s activities by space’s availabilities and sharing knowledge in each of the partner universities. The project focuses on modernization of Albanian ‘s Universities technological transfer offices (TTO), youth employment in key sectors of Albania economy (agri-food) through start up and spin off creation, cooperation and networking among universities at local and international level. Overall, the foreseen capacity building actions aim to transfer original and innovative methodologies and knowledge to different target groups: Academic and university administrative staff, students, enterprises, SMEs, mainly in the agro food sector, Public institutions. The project outputs are: 1) co designed guide lines of Albanian TTOs functioning; 2) increase in competences level and skills of Albanian ‘s HEIs TTOs (capacilty building actions); 3) TTOs services implemented by pilot initiatives (learning by doing); 4) TTOs international network creation. The main project result is the increase of innovation and competitiveness level in the Albanian Universities and businesses system and so the increase of Youth employment in agri food sector.The project strategy is based on a new approach for a modern technological transfer system. From traditional linear technology transfer model to a systemic and circular one. that involves all innovation players (from public bodies to research organizations, companies and innovation agencies) The modernized Albanian HEIs TTOs collaboration at national and international level, is the further means through which a stronger ecosystem of innovation is achieved.

Higher education governance and its autonomy is strongly enhanced by the effective and convincing accountability, transparency and financial sustainability. Discussions on the university governance and autonomy throughout HEIs in Europe are coming as a response to diverse challenges at the different country’s context. As a result, the need for gaining and enhancing public trust in higher education became manifest to develop appropriate forms of transparency and accountability of both public and private institutions. An initiative to form a consortium came as response to address these challenges through the project Strengthening university autonomy and increasing accountability and transparency of Western Balkans Universities /STAND project .The concept entails investing in the strengthening the mechanisms that ensures the long-term sustainability of university autonomy, transparency and accountability. The project foresees cooperation between HEIs in the WB region, their respective ministries and program country partners and contributes to the increasing of professional capacities of HEI staff in partnering HEIs. As structural project it will support reflecting on standards at EU partners and enhancing them at WB institutions through intensified regular academic and management exchange of good practice and sustainable networking between EU-WB partners. A mix of bottom-up and top-down approach that will be used in the project, fosters the dialogue between universities and ministries, and thus enables the consortium to contribute more effectively to the project implementation and sustainability to strengthen the autonomy of Western Balkans higher education institutions. The project aims to reach up to 50,000 persons engaged in higher education and other related activities in Kosovo, Albania and Montenegro and abroad through its dissemination activities.

Virtual Albanian European Universities Exchange (VALEU-X) is a joint project to support the internationalisation efforts of Higher Educational Institutions in Albania through modern technology-enhanced academic exchange with European HEIs. It proposes blending on-campus teaching activities with international Virtual Collaborative Learning (VCL) components as a Virtual Mobility element to introduce international perspectives in formal higher educational programmes within a holistic approach of Internationalisation at Home.The project objectives include:- Enable academic staff to extend their teaching processes and content with international perspectives and elements- Help Albanian HEI to develop effective internationalisation strategies- Provide Albanian students with international experience at their home HEI- Prepare Albanian HEI for successful integration in the EU academic landscapeThe foreseen outcomes and results include:- New problem-based learning practices based on constructive collaborative methodologies.- Common international study activities involving Albanian and European students and academics.- Blended Mobility setup using Virtual Collaborative Learning (VCL) methods and modern ICT including Social Media.- Virtual/Blended Mobility augmented Internationalisation at Home strategies with acknowledgment and recognition mechanisms.The envisaged impact encompasses:- Build capacity at Albanian HEI for international/EU academic practices- Encourage personal growth of Albanian students to become EU citizens- Overcome limited physical academic mobility between Albania and the EU- Increase relevance of Albanian HE programs to international/EU job markets- Promote applied teaching and learning using modern technologies- Enhance the adoption of “eBologna” in Albanian HE

Summary of the project:The project aim is modernisation and internationalisation of VET and bachelor curricula in engineering for renewable energies in the targeted universities in Albania through innovation of curricula in line with the new development in the area and the labour market demand.The project addresses the regional priorities of the countries for modernisation of curriculum in engineering and the strategic plans for renewable energies and need of specialists for the new jobs in the area.Outputs:- Up-to-date curricula in the strategic disciplines in line with the new development in the area of renewable energy with 15 courses developed with applying the approach with learning outcomes, ECTS and e-learning practices, including virtual mobility of students and staff;- 5 innovated laboratories for efficient practical training of students and 6 multimedia laboratories;- Staff trained for the development and delivery of innovated curricula;- HE responsive to the labour market demand;-Real internationalisation of HE in engineering/manufacturing through collaborative development/update of BSc and MSc curricula.Benefits at:- Local level: HEIs will have modernised curricula, modern laboratories upgraded with new equipment; enterprises in the sector will have better educated young engineers for the new jobs in manufacturing and processing for renewable energies; young specialists better prepared for the labour market and as a result - higher employability;- National level: improvement of HE in the country following the national priorities and strategic development.