The seminar “Education fraud: national and global trends” took place in Pržno, Budva, on 28-29 January 2020. Around 40 participants, including respective representatives of the Ministry of Education, national Ethical Committee, Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education, the Parliament, University of Montenegro, private higher education institutions, students’ associations attended the seminar.
Opening the event, Mubera Kurpejovic, Director General for Higher Education at the Ministry of Education announced a further restrictive approach in the recognition of diplomas and qualifications obtained abroad through the upcoming amendment of the Law on recognition of international educational documents. Hermann Spitz, the local EU Delegation’s Head of Co-operation Section said that today we are faced with complex challenges such as companies profiting from education fraud offering inter alia fake diplomas and essay mills so adequate tools must exist to counter such phenomenon. Vesna Atanasova from CoE Education Department informed participants that the new action “Quality education for all” builds on the success of the similar previous project with emphasis on the expertise the intervention is benefiting from through ETINED (Council of Europe Platform on Ethics, Transparency and Integrity in Education).
Participants learned about United Kingdom policy guidance and a proposal for a UK Centre of ethics and academic integrity as well as about Swedish experience in countering the notorious web-era schemes which inter alia offer fake academic degrees and accreditations on a global scale. They also learned that the Irish experience on creating academic integrity networks is a good model that could be replicated in Montenegrin context. Finally, participants discussed relevant national situation in the context of the recent adoption of the law on academic integrity.
The event was organised within the joint European Union/Council of Europe programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey II” and its Action “Quality education for all” in Montenegro.
