LEPL National Center for Educational Quality Enhancement, as a partner institution, is involved in the Erasmus+ project - "Responsible Research Conduct – Research Integrity and Ethics in Georgian Universities (ETHICS)". Within this project, professional development initiatives are being undertaken to enhance the expertise of higher education programme accreditation specialists, particularly in the evaluation of doctoral education programmes.

The goal of the project is to develop scientific activities, considering the latest scientific research and academic achievements. Also, to integrate principles of research ethics and integrity into the processes of authorization and accreditation evaluation.

It should be noted that within the framework of the project, the doctoral education framework document developed by the Center was refined, which was approved by the order of the Minister of Education, Science and Youth of Georgia on August 30, 2024.

The training cycle includes sharing European expertise in doctoral programme evaluation with accreditation experts, familiarizing them with the requirements of the updated doctoral programmes framework document, and disseminating standards and assessment specifics related to research ethics and integrity, as well as providing other useful information.  

The project partners, along with LEPL National Center for Educational Quality Enhancement, are the Ministry of Education, Science and Youth of Georgia, LEPL - Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation, 10 Georgian and 4 European universities. 

At the current stage, on October 25 and 28, training sessions were conducted for educational programme accreditation experts and staff members of the Center's Higher Education Quality Assurance Department. The training cycle will be conducted in phases until March 1, 2025, within which a total of 230 accreditation experts will be retrained.