College of Ptuj

The evaluation of the Ptuj College for the extension of the accreditation of a higher education institution was carried out by a group of experts in accordance with the recommendations, criteria and criteria set by the National Agency of the Republic of Slovenia for Quality in Higher Education. The Ptuj College audit was performed in four areas: Operation of the higher education institution, Human Resources, Students and Material conditions. The four areas assessed include 17 standards. In 10 quality standards, Ptuj College meets quality standards, in 7 quality standards we found partial compliance or full non-compliance. Major weaknesses have been detacted within 5 standards. As with the evaluation of the study programme, we found out that the quality monitoring and quality assurance at the level of the institution (including strategic planning) is not a full circle. The current situation shows that the number of full-time teaching staff is insufficient in relation to the legal requirements. The teaching staff has no relevant publications in the field of bionics under the affiliation of the Ptuj College. The college has practically no cooperation with industry on applied or development projects. The Ptuj College does not have its own library (preparations for its establishment are underway). We also noted the simultaneous implementation of full-time and part-time studies – an aspect of two different sources of funding – on which the competent ministry should give an opinion. We have also identified some aspects of partial compliance with quality standards, which we recommend that the Ptuj College should also address extensively. These are some aspects of the strategic planning of the institution and its internal organisation. In identifying the strengths, we have focused on the distinct strengths of the institution, 8 in total, but there are certainly more. The advantage of the Ptuj College is that it is the only higher education institution in the local area, which is also given importance by the local economy, the growing number of municipalities and the students. Due to the cooperation with the Technical High School and the Inter-enterprise Technology Centre, they have a solid infrastructure to carry out the teaching process, including laboratory work. Students have expressed the school's great flexibility with regard to afternoon timetables. We highlighted over 50 opportunities for improvement that the Ptuj College can take advantage of to further develop and improve the quality of the institution. These opportunities relate to practically all of the assessment standards. At this point, the team would like to thank all those who made the visit to Ptuj College run smoothly: Filip Draženović and Anita Kajtezović, the NAKVIS experts, the Ptuj College management and all other stakeholders for their constructive cooperation during the interviews.