Project Description

The CONGRAD project’s wider objective is to enable higher education institutions (HEIs) in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina to continuously conduct graduate surveys for the purpose of enhancing study offerings and facilitating permanent modernisation processes.

CONGRAD is expected to contribute to the improvement of institutional self-evaluation processes by collecting systematic and reliable information on the links between study offerings and subsequent employment of graduates, as well as enable the evidence-based evaluation of higher education reforms and curricular changes in the last decade. Taking into account previous study conditions and the occupational career of graduates, CONGRAD aims for a general insight in country specific conditions of the transition from higher education to labour market, and shall enable partner country HEIs to make evidence-based strategic decisions.

In more specific terms, CONGRAD is expected to result in the implementation of a systematic data collection system about alumni at partner countries’ HEIs.

An initial graduate survey will be conducted: data collection, verification and analysis will be followed by the interpretation of findings and the production of reports. Strategic management workshops based on the reports will be held in each partner countries’ HEI. Additionally, a regional conference and an expert workshop will be organised.

CONGRAD results will be exploited through the development of an action plan for future graduate surveys including other HEIs in the Western Balkans. Dissemination will be ensured by the project website, career guidance services and events for new alumni, as well as open media events organised at partner countries’ HEIs. A regional conference, a project closing seminar and a major publication on the results of the initial graduate survey will also provide for the dissemination of results. The CONGRAD project will be subject to systematic quality control and monitoring.