BACKGROUND OF THE PROJECT

 According to the latest data (2004), there are 1071 HEIs (662 public and 409 private) in Russia: 458 of them offer engineering programmes to more than 1.3 million students. Over the past ten years, the number of students entering the engineering programmes has been increased from 922 to 1350 people.
The Russian higher education system remains relatively centralised. The Federal Government provides accreditation and licensing for all institutions, private or public, it establishes considerably detailed unified standards of higher education programmes defining the curricula.
Development of an up-to-date system of continuing vocational education, enhancement of quality of HEIs programmes, certification and accreditation of curricula are among the issues specified by the “Priorities of development of the education system” defined by the Government of the Russian Federation and approved in 2005. The document underlines the need to create an effective market of educational services to address the needs of the labour market and all stakeholders of higher education. This implies, as a consequence, the necessity of introducing radically new mechanisms of certification and accreditation of curricula that will require a new organisational and legal framework and will engage professional associations, academic community and employers. The Law of the Russian Federation “On Education” provides both for state and professional accreditation. The Article 37 stipulates that “…within the duties of the state educational authorities are… state accreditation of educational establishments and encouragement of their professional accreditation”. While the main objective of state accreditation is supervision and attestation of HEIs, professional accreditation primarily aims at ongoing programme improvement. Accreditation by professional community (running by the RAEE in engineering) ensures that graduates of an accredited programme are prepared adequately for engineering practice.
Assurance of high quality of engineering education remains a topical issue to provide highly qualified specialists for national economy and therefore ensure the country’s progress. Increasing investment and, at the same time, international cooperation in the field of professional accreditation will continue to be a fundamental resource for the country’s sustainable development.
Cooperation in quality assurance to develop common criteria and methodologies is a key dimension of the Bologna process that the Russian Federation joined in September 2003.
This SCM project will be a complement to the EUR-ACE project (Accreditation of European Engineering Programmes), a project supported by the Tempus and Socrates programmes (2004/05) which has elaborated and proposed a European system for accreditation of engineering HE programmes within the Bologna Process and the European Qualification Framework. Prof. Giuliano Augusti (proposed Deputy Coordinator of the present project) has been the coordinator of the EUR-ACE project, whose final results will be presented in public meetings in Moscow on 1 March and in Bruxelles on 31 March 2006.
An important outcome of the EUR-ACE project has been the establishment as a no-profit International Association of the "European Network for Accreditation of Engineering Education" (ENAEE), formally founded in Bruxelles on 8 February 2006 by 14 partners, including all Consortium members of the present proposal.
The participation of RAEE in the EUR-ACE project and in the ENAEE network as a full partner has been an important step towards harmonization of Russian national system for quality assurance in engineering education with the common European system of quality assurance being created within the context of the Bologna process. This SCM project will thus give a further contribute to the implementation of the Bologna process in Russia and realization of national priorities.