Abstract:

This paper focuses on the evaluation completed as part of the quality assurance plan developed for the project ECOSTAR (English as the Cornerstone of Sustainable Technology and Research). This project funded by the European Commission aspires to establish a national framework for the teaching of English as a Foreign Language at universities and colleges of Higher Education in Israel. The consortium comprises 9 Israeli partners –ORT Braude College of Engineering, the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, Tel Aviv University, the Open University of Israel, Sami Shamoon College of Engineering, the Nazareth Academic Institute, the National Institute for Testing and Evaluation, the Inter-University Computing Center and the National Union of Israeli Students. The European partners include the University of Nicosia, Cyprus, the Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Poland, l’Università degli Studi, L’Aquila, Italy, Maastricht University, the Netherlands, the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca in Romania and the University of Leicester in the UK. UNic assumes the role of quality assurance by sharing good practices from adopting the Common European Framework for language learning (CERF) and monitors the development of the Israeli framework. As part of our goal to establish a risk and contingency management plan to enable early detection and resolution of problems which might affect the smooth implementation of the project, we developed an online tool to evaluate the progress achieved in the 8 Work Packages of the project. We present herein the assessment of the participants and recommendations for the success of the project’s activities.

Keywords:

Quality Assurance, European Projects, Evaluation.