The first mission under the Activity 4.5 Assess governance in 3 pilot universities in compliance with university governance practices in at least 5 countries in EU/internationally of the Twinning project took place from 16 to 20 December 2019. 

The expert who visited Baku for the above-said Activity was retired professor Mr. Jean-Jacques Paul, who served as Co-Rector of France-Turkey Galatasaray University from 2012 to 2017.

The objective of the mission was to assess the university governance system in three pilot universities with a view to ensuring the best approaches that support the development and review of student-centred curricula, through the participation of students in university governance, and develop proposals to enhance the system.

As part of his mission the short-term expert met with the staff of the Science, Higher and Secondary Professional Education Department and also Financial Department of the Ministry of Education to gain insights into current governance system in Azerbaijani universities. 

The expert also performed a deskwork reviewing strategic plans currently implemented by Sumgait State University, Azerbaijan Technical University and Azerbaijan State Pedagogical University.

Later Mr. Paul visited the three above mentioned pilot universities and held meetings with the senior management and discussed the current state of implementation of the respective strategic plans at those universities and the need to modernize strategic plans in order to bring them in conformity with the latest developments in the higher education system nationally and globally.

Later, the expert held working sessions with the teams assigned by each university and presented best examples of strategic plans from European universities. Mr. Paul and the teams also jointly drafted new strategic plans in line with the best international practices.

The universities are expected to work further on the draft strategic plans already created so that they will be reviewed by another expert of the Twinning project during the follow-up mission to be organized in February 2020.