Public debate, as a part of the Final conference of the project “Support Network for Improvement of the Strategic Planning”, took place on 17 July 2009 at the Rectorate of the University of Sarajevo. The participants of the debate were Prof Dr Hans-Peter Liebing, Rector of the University of Hohenheim, Prof Dr Leopold Marz, Chairman of the Association of Biotechnical Universities of Europe (ICA), Prof Dr Anna Badlerova, Dean of the Faculty for European Studies and Regional Development, Dr Simon B Heat, Expert on the project “Support Network for Improvement of the Strategic Planning” and seven deans from the Faculties of Agriculture in the region.

The participants summarised the accomplishments and presented their plans for the continuation of this project. The strategic planning at the higher education institutions related to food and agriculture industry, will remove the following obstacles: lack of focused attention on the actual needs of the students in the education sector, lack of long-term visions and planning, lack of international networking and most importantly, it will increase the participation of students in the decision making process.

“Faculty of Agriculture in Belgrade is implementing the quality assurance strategy and is enhancing its planning strategy. This higher education institution especially monitors the quality of the teaching, the quality of the exams, efficiency of the students in general and in specific subjects. The students play an active role in the decision making process and in the implementation of the strategy. Our students have actively participated in this project and I hope they will continue to participate in its further implementation”, stated Nebojša Ralević, Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture in Belgrade.

Every institution from the region, which is the partner in the project “Support Network for Improvement of the Strategic Planning”, has formed its working group which visited its EU counterparts during the period of 18 months and got acquainted with their systems, organised and prepared Reports on evaluation, while the EU counterparts visited the institutions in the region and prepared Reports on external evaluation.

The EU institutions have provided support to each of the institutions from the region. It is now up to the institutions of the region to use the experiences obtained and make a further step forward.