Abstract:

erbia signed the Bologna Declaration at the Berlin Ministerial Conference in September 2003 and in October 2005 passed a new law on higher education. The new law stipulates forming of the national council for higher education and the national accreditation commission, which was formed soon after the law had been passed. Rules and Regulations on accreditation standards and procedures of higher education institutions and study programs, the integral parts of which are 1) accreditation standards of higher education institutions; 2) study program accreditation of the first and second tiers of higher education; and 3) doctoral study program accreditation were approved and published in November 2006. The whole process of accreditation is to be finished by June 2009.

Languages are thought at five universities in Serbia: University of Belgrade, Novi Sad, Nis, Kragujevac and Novi Pazar. The philological studies held at the Philological faculty of the University of Belgrade are by far the largest, with almost 30 languages. Each of the five faculties reformed its foreign language curricula without any kind of inter-University cooperation or guidance by the accreditation body already by October 2006, even before the standards and rules were published. Despite that the results were bad (no real curricula reform was attempted) and a lot of mistakes have been made that are hard to correct, a new structure has been devised that enables relating Bologna general level descriptors and module/subject specific descriptors with Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) to overcome the gap between language teaching and learning, and the study of literature and culture, traditionally linked with foreign language learning.

Keywords:

serbia, bologna, study program, reform, accreditation, case study, philology.