Monitoring visit to the Erasmus+ Project “Reinforce entrepreneurial and digital skills of students and teachers to enhance the modernization of higher education in Moldova – ReSTART”
In the period of September-October 2020 the National Erasmus+ Office in Moldova, represented by Claudia Melinte, Cristina Gherman and Olga Ghilca carried out a field monitoring visit to the project 585353-EPP-1-2017-1-RO-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP “Reinforce entrepreneurial and digital skills of students and teachers to enhance the modernization of higher education in Moldova – ReSTART”.
The monitoring was divided into several sessions: the field visit took place on 10/09/2020 at the Moldova State University and the Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova, followed by an online session with the project team on 02/10/2020 and receiving additional information on 18/10/2020.
As a result of the monitoring visit and based on the information received the following conclusions were drawn by the National Erasmus+ Office:
“The ReSTART project is highly relevant for Moldovan national context. The project team has upgraded the Entrepreneurial Curriculum at master level, in collaboration with local enterprises representatives. The modernised curricula, as well as the diverse information sessions and business competitions, organised for students in the framework of the ReSTART project, will contribute to increasing their level of competence, boost the innovation skills of graduates and make them better meet the needs of the national labour market.
All Moldovan partner HEIs have elaborated methodologies for blended learning, developed the project’s e-network with digital resources: worksheets, success stories, simulations exercises, case studies, quizzes, projects and business plans. Moldovan HEIs have adopted the newest version of the MOODLE platform and all modernised courses have been published there. The project has contributed to a quick switch of all Moldovan project partner HEIs to the online and blended learning in the exceptional Covid19 circumstances. The ReSTART experience in elaboration of online supporting materials for students has been spread at institutional level.
ReSTART project enjoys a strong support from each Moldovan partner HEI – all modernised courses were approved at institutional level; the accreditation of the modernised master programmes is planned for the next few months.
In view of the above, we would like to draw your attention to the following recommendations that should be taken into account in the next phases of your project’s implementation:
- The project partner HEIs should continue to pay attention to respecting the Erasmus+ and the ReSTART project visual identity and logos, according to the visibility & publicity project obligations;
- The accreditation is very important for all CBHE curricular projects: it will be recommended to the project coordinator to monitor the accreditation of all modernised master programmes and include information about accredited programmes in the final project report;
- The approval of the budget reallocation for the purchase of the additional equipment should be requested from the Agency as soon as possible. As reallocation could only be allowed exceptionally, the request should be very strongly argued by the project coordinator. The purchase procedures can start only after obtaining this approval and with the respect of tendering procedures;
- It would be also recommended to project partner HEIs to purchase and install all the remaining equipment as soon as possible, in order to ensure its use for the project implementation purpose and within the project lifetime;
- The project’s website should reflect the newest information about the implementation of the project, several sections of the ReSTART website could be updated (for e.g. news, events, e-newsletters etc.).”