Lefkothea Kartasidou, University of Macedonia, Greece

/ Support and Inclusion of students with disabilities at Higher Education Institutions in Montenegro
WORKING VISIT
24th-25th March 2014
QPLN7 Quality Control and Monitoring
MNGT10 Overall Management
MEETING MINUTES

Participants:

Lefkothea Kartasidou, University of Macedonia, Greece
Laura Fedeli, University Macerata, Italy
Simone Betti, University of Macerata, Italy
Velibor Boskovic, Association of Youth With Disabilities of Montenegro, Montenegro
Natasa Mauko, Slovenial Association of Disabled Students, Slovenia
Ruzica Marjanovic, Faculty of Management, Herceg Novi, Montenegro
Danijela Vicevic, Institution of Education and Rehabilitation Kotor
Ivana Ognjanovic, University of Mediterranean, Montenegro
Srdjan Jovanovski, University of Mediterranean, Montenegro
Dragica Andjelic, Unviersity of Mediterranean, Montenegro
Dzenan Strujic, IICT, Montenegro
Enes Banda, University of Donja Gorica, Montenegro

Venue: University of Donja Gorica

The Project Coordinator Ms L. Kartasidou had the first day separate meetings with each partner in order to give some clarifications on financial issues. The most important thing was to clarify all supporting documentations that need to be provided and also eligible costs. She had also skype conversation with Veronique Maes (Arcola Research).

After the separate meetings all partners were gathered together in a conference room and the meeting started with a discussion on the feedback from the advisory monitoring visit. Things that were done good and that need to be improved were taken into consideration. The focus of the discussion was on the improvements that have to be made, such as standardization of templates in accordance with the instructions, that is, all deliverables will have to use the same template. It was noted that this was done with deliverables from WPs from 1 through 3, and it still needed to be done for deliverables from WP 4 and 5.

Also, significant attention was dedicated to changes that need to be implemented within Logical Framework Matrix (LFM). As it was pointed out, the LFM has to be more precise, and include specific figures as indicators of progress, such as, trainings conducted within WP5 have to include number of participants.

In addition to that, it was pointed out that indicators of progress should include the number of students with disabilities enrolled at partner universities at first, second and third year of the project. Also, number of guidelines and materials for support to students with disabilities provided for downloading should also be included.

The project manager, Ms. Kartasidou pointed out that she has to have the overview of all the changes that are to happen within the project, thus she asked all partners to keep her up to date regarding the possible changes. This is especially important because of the final report that will have to be prepared and reflect the real situation. Because of this, the report will have to capture all those positive changes that occurred, such as, within WP5, instead of just developing training materials, two additional reports were produced, and that should be emphasized in the final report.It was also suggested to prepare an evaluation report on training in total. UNIMC and UOM will cooperate in order to produce this report.

The exemption of students with disabilities from paying tuition fees was discussed as well. Montenegrin partners submitted the proposal to Montenegrin government for students with disabilities to be exempt from paying tuition fees at universities in Montenegro. This proposal was included in the draft version of the new law on higher education in Montenegro. However, the Law did not go through in the Montenegrin Parliament, and it was returned for revision. Ms. Kartasidou said that this should be also noted in the report as a positive change made by project partners.

Another issue that was raised was related to dissemination activities. It was pointed out that it would be good to produce a video during the next workshop that will be held in Montenegro. The idea was to make an interview with students with disabilities before and after the workshop, and to use this video as a material for the upcoming conference.

As it regards the conference, the dates were proposed. After proposing several dates, and after commenting each of the proposals, it was decided that the third and final conference will take place on 29th and 30th of September 2014.

Ms. Kartasidou suggested that, since this will be the final conference, its content should be enriched and involves more speakers and more guests than it was the case with previous two conferences.

The working visits were also discussed. It was noted that only two of the working visits were left, to Warsaw and Thessaloniki. When speaking about this, Ms. Kartasidou pointed out that it is important to have in mind that the entire budget foreseen for travel costs should be used. As it regards the dates, it was proposed to have the visit to Warsaw firs, in May, and then the visit to Thessaloniki in June.

At last, the dev 9.2 was presented by Mr. Enes Banda, from UDG, and discussed by project partners. It was concluded that it needed to be improved. Specifically, it needs to be more precise in terms of rules and procedures that regulate the use of Student Advisory Office services by the students with disabilities. The document should outline all the steps, with specific needs to be addressed as well as who is responsible for what.

For WP6, Ms Ognjanovic, Ms Andjelic and Mr Jovanovski presented the activities that were undertaken up to that moment, such as creation of surveys that were about to be undertaken among academic and administrative staff and students at partner universities for the monitoring of university regulatory documents implementation and piloting and evaluation of defined support services in partner universities phases of the project.

As it regards the overall management, the most of the time was spent discussing financial issues with project partners and making sure that each partner is using budget funds in accordance with the plan. The emphasis was on the budget dedicated to working visits, since there are only two visits left and all the money have to be used.

The plans regarding the piloting of peers’ support workshops and monitoring and evaluation of training effects at partner universities were discussed and finalized.

The agenda of the meeting is in the Annex 1 to this document.

Annex 1

Venue: University of Donja Gorica, Podgorica, ME

Monday 24th March 2014

9:30-12:00 Meeting with ME partners

9:30-10:15 Meeting with UDG

10:15-11:00 Meeting with UNIM

11:00-11:15Meeting with AYDM

11:15-11:30Meeting with IERK

11:30-11:45Meeting with IICT and MIS

11:45-12:00Meeting with FMHN

12:00-12:30Pause

12:30-13:00QPLN 7.2 External Quality control and Monitoring

Discussion on the feedback from the advisory monitoring visit Discussion on the 2nd external evaluation report

Revision of the LFM – Indicators of progress

13:00-13:30DISS8 Dissemination

Planned and proposed dissemination activities

Reporting on dissemination activities till now

13:30-14:30Pause - Lunch break

14:30-15:00WP5 Training

Discussion on outputs/outcomes of training

Overall reporting and indicators of training

15:00-15:30EXP9 Exploitation/Sustainability

Discussion and review of EXP9.2

Discussion on report EXP9.3

15:30-16:00WP6 Piloting

DEV 6.1 Monitoring of university regulatory documents implementation

DEV 6.2 Piloting and evaluation of defined support services in partner universities

16:30 End of the meeting

Tuesday 25th March

10:00-11:00MNGT10 Overall Management

Discussion on managerial and financial issues

Next planned working visits and discussion on content

11:00-11:30 WP6 Piloting

DEV 6.3 Piloting of peers’ support workshops

DEV 6.4 Monitoring and evaluation of training effects at partner universities

11:30-12:00 Discussion – Remarks from partners

12:30 End of the meeting