project summary: Quality assurance has been prioritized by the federal legislation and national education strategy in both partner countries, Russia and Azerbaijan. Legal quality assurance is a complex, multi-layered system of interrelated elements. In fact, legal guarantees only legally formalize the established economic, social and other mechanisms to ensure the quality of education. In the aspects of QA of HEI, Internal Quality Assurance (IQA) plays essential role. However, there is a fixed understanding within a broad community and stakeholders in RU and AZ that the quality of education needs to be enhanced due to inconsistency in IQA procedures on institutional and national levels in general.Project IQAinAR aims to support enhancement and development of the IQA of HEIs of partner countries with international (EU) quality standards as benchmark as well as strengthening the HEIs towards local, regional and national policies and strategies implementation. The IQA system has very broad spectrum, and this project will focus on two main areas of IQA of HEI: teaching (teaching, learning and assessment) and teacher (educator, practitioner researcher) as teacher plays key role of QA of teaching.Additionally, IQA lies within a culture of quality awareness, critical review and of continue-improvement attitude and actions within HEI’s. This project is aiming at supporting the further quality culture development within HEI’s of partner countries. This project will develop IQA Indicators and assessment scale based on International (EU) standards and practice. After evaluation of implementation further training programmes will be developed with full information and training package. During the project lifetime, the partners will not only train the within their own institute but reach out to all interested parties in IQA of the partner countries and give the project after-life through its open online platform with full resources and experts in implementation of the IQA system.

Today the impact of enterprise-university collaboration on the national and global economies as well as social welfare cannot be overestimated, as the quality of people's life and the society depends on job satisfaction and payment level which are rooted in the competences acquired by the student at university. Despite significant efforts by academic, business and governmental bodies in Russia, Belarus and Azerbaijan to broaden the engagement in university-business cooperation, there is a lack of awareness of how HEIs and business can cooperate and how their activities interrelate. EU Universities and business, on the contrary, have accumulated relevant experience and efficient modes of cooperation that needs to be disseminated to education areas in the consortium members to facilitate the Bologna process achievements, link business and academia. The outcomes of UniLab project can be divided into specific and general. The specific outcomes for the Partner countries are: (1) increased university-business cooperation skills and experience of academics and business people, governments, HEIs and business (2) increased recognition of the importance of the university-business cooperation with governments, HEIs and business (3) improved skills and future job prospects of students (4) modernization of HEI curricula in compliance with the interests and demands of the labor market (5) created jobs, stimulating social and economic growth of RU, AZ, BY, increasing living standards of the society as a whole.The general outcomes for the Partner countries as well as EU education area are: (1) making HEI more attractive for potential talented students and researchers, 2) improving innovation and competitiveness for business (2) creating effective models for better aligning curricula and the skills of graduates with the labour market, improving employment pathways for students, and recruitment for employers as well as lifelong learning programmes for business.

The Wider Project Objective:To strengthen the European dimension in qualifications of the tourist sector to enhance employability of graduates in the field of tourism in Russia and Kyrgyzstan.Specific Project Objectives:1. To harmonize qualifications and competences in the tourist sector in the Programme and Partner Countries on the basis of learning outcomes, occupational standards and sectoral qualification framework (SQF). 2. To improve qualification of the teaching staff of PCIs, involved in developing and implementing new curriculum, based on OS and SQF 3. To design a pilot curriculum in tourism for the 7th qualification level (Masters’ degree) based on OS, SQF and learning outcomes 4. To establish quality control and monitoring procedures at PCIs and enhance quality, relevance and convergence with EU initiatives 5. To disseminate project outcomes and best practices in higher education sector of Russia and Kyrgyzstan and to enhance networking among HEIs and professional associations across Program and Partner Countries6. To ensure effective and efficient project and programme managementThe project partnership was help RU and KG PCIs improve the quality in tourism education by modernizing their educational systems and strengthening intellectual, cultural, social, scientific and technological potential. The project was allow for reforming qualification systems and developingOccupational Standards and Qualification Framework for the tourist sector in RU and KG. On the basis of OS and SQF partners was jointly develop a pilot innovative second cycle curriculum in tourism focused on 7th level learning outcomes, professional competences and student centered pedagogical approach, which was meet the industry demand in employees’ qualifications. To enhance the EU dimension and to reference qualification levels to European qualification framework (EQF) partners was need to understand their own national qualifications landscape and explain allocation process at national and EU-level as was as reflect EQF and national contexts and objectives. Cooperation and dialogue of actors across vocational, higher and general education and social partner and private sector involvement play a bridging role. The partnership was work towards a ‘common language' to translate occupational standards into qualifications and understand and compare qualifications both at national and EU level.– Qualifications that have both national and international value are truly a global phenomenon. Recognition and transparency of all qualifications was make it easier for individuals to explain their skills and increase mobility in the national labour markets and across countries.The changes in the industry also creates demand from employers and practitioners for opportunities for employees to update or improve their qualifications, and hence there is growing interest in Mastres' programs. The full picture is that the above factors make it more likely that the changes carried through during the project was be sustained long after it has been completed and was be beneficial for the target groups. On the whole, the situation in the tourist dector was change for the better, since the tourist education will be structured around competences specified at each level, and the tourist industry will get specialists trained in accordance with the qualificitaions required.The project will contribute to the structural changes in tourist education and was produce the multiplier effect through the disemination activities. Ministries of Education in RU and KG direct involvement in the project was of great value in endorsing the project outcomes through accreditation process.