On September 4, 2022, the next meeting of the Erasmus+ project called "Establishment of the Rectors' Conference in Azerbaijan" (ECAR) was held at Odlar Yurdu University, coordinated by Baku Business University. The Rector of Odlar Yurdu University, Prof. Ahmet Valiyev, Vice-Rectors of universities that are members of the project consortium, and other leaders took part in the event.
The vice-rector of Odlar Yurdu University, associate professor Gabil Gafarov, who opened the meeting with an introductory speech, greeted the participants and gave general information about the university and a number of innovations. At the meeting, issues related to the preparation of the 3rd work plan package of the project, including the Strategic Plan of the Rectors' Conference and the Action Plan covering the years 2023-2025 were discussed. It was mentioned that the implementation of the 3rd work plan, realized under the guidance of the French Institute of Education, which is one of the foreign partners of the project, started in March of this year, and a number of online meetings were held in this direction with the participation of the Baku Business University and the French Institute of Education.
Gulshan Bayramova, coordinator of the project, director of the University-Industry Cooperation Department of Baku Business University, emphasized that during this period, a survey was conducted with the participation of 48 vice-rectors from 20 universities in order to make a decision regarding the committees to be created within the framework of the project in accordance with the relevant work plan. Based on the results of the survey, it was decided to establish the relevant committees based on the needs at the national level, as well as the results obtained from the survey. Thus, committees on Educational Affairs and Quality Assurance under the supervision of Mykolas Romeris University of Lithuania, Scientific Affairs under the supervision of the Royal University of Technology of Sweden, Strategic Management of Higher Education Institutions under the supervision of the Polish Rectors' Conference, International Relations under the supervision of the EFMD Accreditation Organization of Belgium and Student under the supervision of the French Institute of Education are supposed to operate. It was noted that the first training will be organized by CPU/FEI with the participation of CRUE, KTH, MRU/LURK and CRASP in October 2022.
After that, division of work was carried out among the working group created for the preparation of the Strategic Plan, and the implementation mechanisms of the planned tasks were discussed. In the end, G. Bayramova noted that within the framework of the project, the preparation of the Strategic Plan of the Rectors' Conference covering the years 2023-2025 will be started soon.
Director of the development office, Raziya Isayeva, as an official representative of Khazar University, joined the extensive discussions on the issues mentioned in the meeting.