GENERAL INFO:

The project “Corruption Free Universities in Albania, North Macedonia and Serbia”. The project is being implemented by ISIE, IDRA and CESID from January 2023 to August 2024. The overall goal of the project is to promote rule of law, provide effective administration of justice and prevent corruption among students and university employees in the higher education of AL, NMK and RS.

Specific objectives of the project:

(1) to raise awareness of all stakeholders in HE system for effective implementation of corruption prevention mechanisms;

(2) to strengthen the capacities of university administration and management as well as the capacities of students, student bodies and organizations to implement the existing legislation for corruption prevention and to develop new instruments to address the emerging challenges and

(3) to promote the establishment of enabling environment for reporting corruption through better informed stakeholders and general public.

Expected result: At the end of the project, the beneficiaries will have better knowledge and skills to report corruption, more instruments for distribution of information, developed university mechanism for reporting in accordance to the national legislation, raised public awareness and generally more enabling environment for reporting corruption in higher education.

Activities foreseen within the project:

• Kick off meeting where the project will be presented to all interested parties: students, student organizations, professors and youth organizations.
• Research Results (baseline and end-line results) Through a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods, WP will analyze the current situation in the following areas: students’ perception of corruption at public universities in North Macedonia, Serbia and Albania, quality of existing corruption prevention mechanisms, level of implementation of these mechanisms and implementation gaps. This includes baseline face-to-face research with 300 students per country (3 universities per country – total 9 universities and 900 students. Collected and analyzed data will be prepared and designed in a user-friendly format which will enable an easy understanding of results for citizens (in particular marginalized, underserved groups), using tools such as infographics, ratings, scales, charts etc.  Infographics and charts will be shared on social media platforms and website.
• Joint report – Joint Report on corruption perception and assessment of corruption prevention, in all national languages and in English, with a goal to identify potential challenges in the development of capacity-building activities and potential legislative action. This file will be designed, printed will be published on the project website and project implementing partners organizations.
• Policy brief - The brief will be shared with MPs in order to have their attention for further legislative measures. Following the layout and print of the document, 300 copies will be disseminated accordingly.
• Corruption Prevention Guide - supported by the Toolkit of relevant best practices – with an aim to describe the procedure for the protection of students’ rights in a simple way based on a step-by-step approach in each country. The guides will contain a detailed step-by-step description of the procedures needed to be followed by students, and the legal remedies at their disposal in each country. The toolkit will contain a summary of best practices in corruption prevention and reporting and will be disseminated to selected target groups at all public events.
• End-line research will be launched, with the purpose to measure the change in perception, behavior and attitudes of both students and stakeholders when it comes to corruption in higher education. The results of research will also be used as a source of verification in monitoring and evaluation of project activities, outputs and outcomes, in line with the MEL plan. The results of the research will be publicly presented at the final conference.
• Capacity-building workshops would be organized in all three countries – two per country in different cities (each workshop with 20 participants). The workshop curriculum would be primarily based on the research findings and policy brief. Aim of the workshops would be to strengthen the capacities of the abovementioned stakeholders with effective mechanisms for corruption prevention.
• Summer school would be organized at Ohrid lake in North Macedonia. A total of 30 students – participants (10 per country) will be selected through a public call to attend a 3-day summer school on advanced practices for corruption prevention.
• A roundtable with key stakeholders in each national capital will be organized to discuss the issues with conclusions to be reflected in the policy brief (60 participants in total, 20 per country).
• Working breakfast with MPs to discuss findings and next steps.
• There will be up to 30 follow-up activities.
• The final conference in Belgrade would also be a public event with 50 participants – it would gather representatives of all partner organizations from which the Consortium is made in which findings and recommendations would be presented from the perspective of the 20-month project experience. Media would receive an invitation to be informed on the project’s final results, findings and recommendations.

Primary target audience: students, activists, informal groups and representatives of student organizations; administration and management of public universities, representatives of civil society and other competent stakeholders.