IQPharm Final Symposium Held
The final symposium of the Erasmus+ project for capacity building in higher education “Innovating quality assessment tools for pharmacy studies in Bosnia and Herzegovina” (IQPharm), whose coordinator is the University of Sarajevo, was held in the period 01-03/12/2023 in Hotel Hills in Sarajevo.
The symposium was a hybrid event, very interactive, both with the participants who were present live, and with those who followed the event online. The event was attended by a large number of masters of pharmacy from all over Bosnia and Herzegovina from all fields of pharmacy, and numerous members of the academic staff were present not only from partner institutions, but also from other universities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as students, most of whom concern the changes in raising the standards of higher education of pharmacists in our country, brought about by this project.
IQPharm is a project of national importance focused on raising the quality and modernization of pharmacy studies at public universities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. After three years of implementation of the activities of the IQPharm project, the results of this three-year work and the impact of the Project on the education of pharmacists in Bosnia and Herzegovina were presented at this Final, through lectures, but also a series of workshops and panel discussions.
At the opening ceremony, numerous distinguished dignitaries spoke with words of support, and after that came the presentation of the results of the project, which was presented by the coordinator, Prof. Dr. Tamer Bego.
On Saturday, 02/12/2023, lecturers Regina Tischtau, Dr. Theo Ryan and Mate Portolan, mag.pharm. presented very interesting lectures the path from a student to a master's degree in pharmacy in the countries of the European Union (Germany, Ireland and Croatia), and the role of universities and regulatory bodies in these processes. This was followed by a very interesting panel discussion about pharmacy in the countries of the region and a comparison with the European Union.
The most important tests in ensuring the quality of Master of Pharmacy education introduced by the IQPharm project, the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) and the Knowledge Retention Test (KREF), were presented by the representatives of the partner institutions, Prof. Dr. Darko Modun from the University of Split and Prof. Dr. Zoran Komazec and Prof. Dr. Veljko Krstonošić from the University of Novi Sad. After this, there were workshops where it was shown how these tests are made, and then a competition of students from partner universities. Students competed in mixed teams, and we are very proud of their demonstrated knowledge, as well as their courage in participating in new forms of testing.
On Sunday, 03/12/2023, an interactive workshop presented free modules and micro-credentials as new forms of teaching, both for students of cyclical education and for colleagues in lifelong learning programs. Then the EE-platform for management and monitoring of professional practice was presented in a very interesting way.
This was followed by a very significant panel discussion on the current state and the necessary changes in the legislation in the process of obtaining a license for the independent work of a Master of Pharmacy with respected participants from both entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The final workshop was the World Cafe, where the participants discussed important future steps, and important conclusions were drawn for the sustainability and improvement of the results achieved by the IQPharm project.
We are grateful to our partners for their active participation in the processes of progress in raising the quality of Master of Pharmacy education at public universities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. We are also very proud of the support of a large number of associated partners, who made a very significant contribution to achieving the set goals of the IQPharm project.
For more about the project, visit the site https://erasmus-iqpharm.com/
