CBHE Monitoring

MONITORING OF CAPACITY BUILDING IN HIGHER EDUCATION PROJECTS

Regular monitoring is a mandatory rule for all CBHE projects. It is conducted by representatives of the NEO in compliance with the rules established for all CBHE projects, and according to the plan approved by EACEA. In the university where the CBHE project is monitored, the NEO simultaneously monitors the international credit mobility (ICM) projects, in case the university participates in that action.

The purpose of CBHE monitoring is to evaluate the implementation and management strategy of the project used by the project team to achieve the objectives of the project and to identify best practices, as well as difficulties and problems.

The project team members, as well as stakeholders and / or target groups (where appropriate), such as students, university staff, employers, etc. are expected to take part in the monitoring visit.

TYPES OF CBHE PROJECT MONITORING

Preventive monitoring takes place during the first half of the eligibility period.
Objectives:

  • Provide support to the project in its early phase
  • Contribute to its local/national visibility
  • Provide recommendations to the projects in order to prevent potential future difficulties and obstacles linked to the project’s implementation;
  • Inform on the rules and procedures, review of the objectives, priorities, methodology and activities planned;

Advisory monitoring is conducted during the second half of the eligibility period.
Objectives:

  • Evaluate the project management strategy and the degree of its implementation;
  • Provide recommendations and advice to accompany the implementation of the project
  • Check on both the content and the financial aspects, based in particular on the content of the interim report and the facts observed on the spot.

Impact monitoring is conducted after the end of the eligibility period.
Objectives:

  • Assess the actual sustainability and impact of the project at all levels (individual, institutional, local and national);
  • Find evidence on principal factors that may have affected or contributed to the sustainability of the project results (during and/or after the funding period);
  • Find evidence of and further encourage the exploitation of project results for the benefit of individuals, institution or national authorities;
  • Identify best practices in terms of project sustainability, impact and exploitation of results.

THE MAIN ISSUES TO BE ADDRESSED:

  • The organization of the project team within the partnership in terms of decision making bodies (composition, periodicity of meetings, questions discussed), distribution and monitoring of tasks (responsibility for the different work packages), stability of the teams (/changes as compared to key actors in the application), communication methods, etc. Special attention is paid to the involvement of all project teams in implementing different work packages, and not only for which they are responsible for.
  • Presentation of the activities carried out as compared the original application in terms of timing (has the original calendar been respected and if not, why and how will the delays be addressed), nature and quality of the outputs produced so far, involvement of (/awareness raising towards) the different stakeholders and target groups, project dissemination strategy and activities carried out so far, etc. Special attention is paid to the methodology of project implementation that should be agreed on at either the kick-off meeting, or at a separate methodology workshop. This specifically concerns the JP on curricula development.
  • Project impact / visibility among the universities in Kosovo and at the local / regional levels. Special attention is paid to the dissemination strategy of the project results and their sustainability, as well as measures taken to increase the impact and sustainability of the results.

MONITORING PREPARATION PROCEDURE:

  • The National Erasmus+ Office in Kosovo (NEO) notifies all Kosovo partner universities and the coordinator about the monitoring visit.
  • Location and the exact date of monitoring are agreed on by all partners and NEO
  • The project team prepares the monitoring programme with advice from the NEO
  • The project team makes a list of participants and informs the NEO
  • The project coordinator at each university prepares information on the project implementation so far on the basis of the suggested questions (self-report). The information can be summarized and sent to the NEO by the Country Coordinator (if any).
  • The team prepares presentations on project progress, project impact, quality of partnership and cooperation, project relevance, to what extent project activities contribute to the achievement of project goals.

DOCUMENTS FOR THE MEETING

  • Meeting agenda with the list of participants
    Copy of the Partnership agreement(s) signed within the partnership
  • Organigram of the project organisation with the identification of the responsible bodies/persons for what concerns the project management and the implementation of the different work packages;
  • Minutes of the last coordination meeting
  • Copy of the most relevant pages of the project website and any other dissemination material/results (e.g. leaflet, poster, brochure, media coverage, etc.)
  • Copy of the Quality Assurance / Evaluation plan and reports produced so far (if any)
  • Copies of the products/output produced so far
  • Other documents related to project management and demonstrating its outputs and outcomes

The monitoring report is sent to the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA).

An introductory message from Mimika Dobroshi – Coordinator of the Kosovo Erasmus+ Office