At the outset, the project manager, Dr. Adel Karim Daragmeh, presented an overview of the project development. The coordinator congratulated the project team on achieving the results from the preparation and capacity building workpackages. Among the main project achievements are the completion of an extensive national baseline study on the status of first year education and assessment practices in Palestine. The study was submitted formally to the Ministry of Education in a meeting with the Education Minister, Dr. Sabri Saidam, on 20 June, 2018. In addition, 20 academic staff members were trained on modern assessment practices and the utilization of technology tools to support self-learning practices in March 2018. since then the trained staff has trained 40 other first year educators on these practices. Also, the design of 10 first year education courses has been completed and will be ready for implementation in August 2018.

The project team also agreed that the quality review process for the courses will start in July and end in August 2018. The process will include self-review, peer-review and European review of the course syllabi and online materials. A standard review template was prepared and approved by the project board. This template will be used by evaluators to ensure that the 10 courses were prepared in congruence with EU standards for first degree courses.

The delegates also agreed that the implementation of the courses will start in August 2018 in all national institutions. The expected number of students in the target courses was estimated at 2500 first year students. To measure the impact on the learners, the project quality committee will conduct a pre- and post-evaluation and will share the results with the project board in the next meeting. To ensure high quality course delivery, the coordinators in each national institution will host two monitoring meetings with the course teachers in each institution. A standard monitoring template was prepared and approved by the project board.

The project manager presented the action plan for the final year of the project. The plan included tasks and timeframes for these remaining workpackages, which include course implementation phase; the national qualification matrix; education leadership visit; and policies for first year education. The delegates approved the dates and actions for these workpackages. The action plan will be uploaded to the project website for easy reference by project members.

The management actions were also presented and each partner was asked to submit the financial report and supporting documents for the first pre-financing to the project coordinator by the end of July 2018. The needed documents were presented by the coordinating institution and they were shared with all partners at the end of the management session.

The project board will follow up on the implementation of agreed plans. The board wishes to thank Dr. Ester Boldrini, Deputy Director, International Project Management Office -OGPI-, University of Alicante for organizing the 3rd project meeting.