The Nizami project concerns the modernization of doctoral education, research and internationalization of HEIs in Azerbaijan. This project intends to answer to the urgent need for Azerbaijan universities to revise the rules and content of organizing doctoral studies within Bologna process documents in terms of their consistency, especially on ensuring science and research provisions in relevance with European standards, to fulfill the students' mobility and internationalzation of research.The consortium will achieve the objectives by restructuring the doctoral education through : (a) the organisation of doctoral schools within the HEIS and at the National level, (b) insuring high standards in doctoral education, (c) improving internationalization.A standardisation and modernization of doctoral education will lead to a better recognition from Europe of the quality of research provided by the HEIs and research institutions of Azerbaijan. Therefore, an enhance in collaboration between Europe and Azerbaijan can be predicted. As well, a greater ease of international mobility for PhD students, young researchers and staff should be reached.On a national level, the PhD students should inhance their professional skills to meet the needs of the local, regional and national markets.

The continuous increase in oil and gas production, together with the simultaneous growing impact of related activities (such as extraction and transportation) have caused a huge pollution in the Caucasian area. The remediation of such area has now become a National priority in Azerbaijan. As a consequence, the availability of specialists skilled in the design and application of technologies suitable to tackle the main environmental problems of the country is an urgency, which represents a crucial and necessary step (but also an opportunity) in Azerbaijan’s development. On the other side, the M. Sc. courses on Environmental engineering and Ecology, currently held in Azerbaijan, are mainly oriented towards fundamental aspects and traditional environmental technologies, thus missing to provide the graduates with specific professional skills, necessary for their sudden entrance into the job market. ITACA project deals with the design and building up of a Training Center, involving EU and local institutions, as well as enterprises active in the field of environmental impact of oil and gas production, to contribute to the strengthening of the relationship between university and industry, by jointly training graduated students to be employed in the field.The Training Centre will design and develop a one year postgraduate third cycle course managed in collaboration between industry and academia. The current HE system in the Country does not include a third cycle of education different from PhD, while in EU it has been proved successful, especially in the field of ecology and environmental sciences, as well as engineering. The introduction of this new type of course, constituting a bridge between Universities and industries, could contribute to solving the emerging issues in the field of environmental remediation in the Country. An innovative teaching methodology will be applied, based on EU experiences, thus contributing to the modernization of local HE system.

"The project ""Developing Master Programmes in Mobile Applications and Game Design"" (MAGnUS) is aimed at enhancing IT graduates employability and quality of IT education at RU and AZ universities through introducing an interdisciplinary Master programmes in line with the Bologna provisions. The specific project objectives are: To develop new interdisciplinary high-quality multi-track Master program in Mobile applications and Game design in line with Bologna provisions and while adapting the EU best practice;• To upgrade the teaching staff skills in T• To set up student labs;The main project outputs are: Master programme in Mobile Applications and Game Design delivered at 6 RU and AZ universities; teachers possessing the-state-of-the art T&A methods; 6 student design labs set up at partner universities; pilot mobility schemes tested within the project; two summer schools conducted in partner countries, joint student projects in relevant fields. The Master programme will have two tracks and will consist of 6 modules and Master thesis defence. The project objectives will be achieved through the implementation of six work packages. During the preparation phase the main project policies and plans will be devised and analysis of key employers' needs conducted. During the development phase main outputs are to be produced. Training of teachers will be done through the cascade model: first, the train the trainer program will be introduced for a small number of qualified teachers; then the trained trainers will transfer the skills to a wider circle of academics. The student labs will serve as a link to partnerships with business partners which will be involved in project activities as associated partners. All project outputs will be evaluated through peer reviews, business partners' evaluation reports, student and trainees' satisfaction survey. MAGnUS will provide dissemination of the outputs through various measures."

With the internationalization of education and the growing need for specialists who meet the requirements of the new digital and innovative economy, the role of universities is becoming a key. In this regard, new forms of interaction between higher education organizations at the international level of university networks emerging and developing. “Although Azerbaijan signed Bologna agreement already in 2005, there is weak awareness of benefits of EHEA related issues among wider audience in the country. The knowledge on the recent developments of higher education system in Azerbaijan remains vague. The communication and networking concerning EHEA issues is rather fragmented among different departments in the MoE and various stakeholders. There is a need of national universities networks in Azerbaijan to promote and facilitate cooperation, support universities in their primary work, that is – high quality education, as well as to actively lobby for better legislation and wise spending its finance aimed at the advancement of higher education and research. The consortium believes that Rectors conference can be a great getaway for all of the universities presenting a single voice in key initiatives and challenges. The ultimate goal of this project is to endorse strong networking and cooperation among national universities and decision makers through the establishment of Rectors Conference. The approach chosen for implementation, however, includes a collaborative framework with respective stakeholders, mainly focusing on educational needs.The overall aim of the project is fostering national networking and cooperation among universities and all other stakeholders by establishing the rectors conference in accordance with national development strategies.

"In the last years, with the contribution of European Cooperation Programmes, the EHEA became a reference point for policy dialogue between the EU and several regions of the world on higher education and its key role for employability of graduates. The growing global dimension of education, needs further actions for the enhancement of exchanges between the EHEA and other parts of the world, sharing goals and principles, as the transparent recognition of studies and qualifications. Within the EHEA, the implementation of ECTS (as credit accumulation and transfer), the fundamental shift from a teacher-centred to a learner-centred approach (SCL) and the use of learning outcomes and workload in curriculum design and delivery, as result of a long process and experimentation, increased the transparency and readability of the educational process and facilitated the recognition of mobility from institution to institution and from country to country as well as successful learning mobility between institutions of EHEA for short-term study periods (""credit mobility""). The recent acceleration of mobility between EHEA and other regions through the EM programme put a renewed and global perspective of “mobility” which showed the huge challenges that HE institutions and systems still need to face and manage. The students participating to EM projects are experimenting the same problems in recognition of studies abroad, that EU students and institutions had to afford at the first stage of Erasmus mobility.The project proposal intends to harmonise the credit allocation and grading system in 5 study areas jointly developed in previous projects in 23 institutions from 8 countries belonging to 4 different regions, besides EU, providing a reliable scheme for credit and grades transfer, and is based on previous experiences of the partnership in TEMPUS Programme in CA, Caucasus, Russia and Asia and EMA2 projects in the same regions, and on the new ECTS Guide and pilot project EGRACONS"