Following the announcement of the formation of ten Academies proposed by the Minister of Education Mladen Sarcevic and the Council for the Reform of Higher Vocational Schools, the first proposal was adopted at the Applied Health Sciences Ćuprija.
The school council and the teaching council adopted the proposal unanimously, expressing readiness to lead the way towards a complete reform of higher education.
Pursuant to Articles 51 and 54 of the Law on Higher Education, the Government of the RS decided to establish the Academy of Educational and Medical Vocational Studies. The Academy would be composed of three schools of College of Applied Health Sciences Cuprija, Higher school of vocational studies Krusevac and Higher school for teachers Aleksinac.
The last director of the CAHS Cuprija, after 20 years of working in that school, PhD Christos Alexopoulos stated that the interests of youth education are out of any personal interest, which is why the whole collection of the College in Cuprija supported the project. “We are all ready to contribute to making the reforms as successful as possible,” said Alexopoulos, further emphasizing the preference of forming the Academy in Serbia.
“The development of higher education is facing a great many challenges because higher education is of the utmost importance for the development of Serbia based on knowledge. Higher education is directed towards harmonization with the European Higher Education Area. Higher education institutions will develop their organizational structure by strengthening the integration and cooperation of basic units (faculties and higher schools) within universities, or academies of vocational studies.
The development of vocational studies is facing two key challenges: raising quality and developing educational resources in accordance with higher education standards. Key measures for improving quality are the improvement of the competencies of the teaching staff and the quality of the study programs. The key measures of the development of educational resources and processes are the systematic positioning of vocational studies in research activity by introducing master vocational studies with the research content of the targeted practical application “- added Dr Alexopoulos.
Namely, at the last session of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, this decision was adopted; it remains only to be implemented in practice.