MINELRES: Job opening at REF
[email protected]
[email protected]
Sat Jun 26 16:48:22 2010
Original sender: Valeria Bodoczky <[email protected]>
Valeria Bodoczky
Administrative Assistant
Scholarships Programme
Roma Education Fund
(Mark Center) Terez krt. 46. IV.em.
1066 Budapest, Hungary
____________________________
Tel: +361 327 0611
Fax: +361 2358031
Web: www.romaeducationfund.org
Roma Education Fund
The Roma Memorial University Scholarship program (RMUSP) was established
in 2001 with the funds of Open Society Institute(OSI) and administered
from OSI Budapest office for 7 consequent years. Since 2008 it is
managed by the Roma Education Fund (REF) Scholarships Programme. RMUSP
operates in Albania, Bosnia-herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech
Republic, Hungary, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Slovakia,
Serbia and Turkey. Between 2001-2010 more than 6,600 Scholarships were
given to Roma Students in Program countries to enable Roma youth pursue
tertiary education in their home countries or the countries of their
residence.
Roma Education Fund Scholarships Program is now inviting researchers and
experts in education to carry out a full scale study of Drop outs,
attrition tendencies and dynemics, as well as research the background
for such tendencies within the evaluation framework of the Program. The
focus of the Drop out study/evaluation of RMUSP will be 400
beneficiaries in 4 program countries.
The Study/Evaluation will be carried out in the Program Countries
between July 20th and October 20th, 2010. The work period may not exceed
40 working days. The draft, as well as final study/evaluation papers
need to be delivered in English.
The experts, individual or in groups, who have relevant experience and
credentials and wish to apply for carrying out the external evaluation
of the project will have to submit:
�CV/s
� Study Proposal - framework and methodology, timeframes and supported
by detailed budget. The initial proposal may not exceed 2.5-3 pages.
The interested applicants must send the above requested papers as an
e-mail attachment to Ms. Valeria Bodoczky at
[email protected] by the deadline of 5 :00 pm, Friday,
July 9th, 2010.
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Roma Education Fund
Terms of Reference for Drop Out Study in Roma Memorial University
Scholarship Programme (RMUSP):
Introduction
The Roma Memorial University Scholarship Programme (RMUSP) was
established in 2001 under the Open Society Institute (OSI) New York and
administered from OSI Budapest office. Since 2008, RMUSP has been fully
operated by the Roma Education Fund (REF) Scholarships Programme
(REF/SP) team. REF/SP is assisted in administration of the Scholarship
Programme by a network of Coordinators in countries in largest Programme
countries. The RMUSP is administering its 11th cycle in 2010-2011
academic year.
RMUSP operates in Albania, Bosnia-herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech
Republic, Hungary, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Slovakia,
Serbia and Turkey. The goal of the Programme is to open access to more
than 1000 Roma students to tertiary education annually, in order to
empower them to address the issues of direct and indirect
discrimination, unjust policies, violation of human rights, racially
motivated violence and intolerance from outside and within their
communities.
RMUSP provides support through annual Scholarships to Roma students to
enable them to pursue University level education of Bachelor's, Master's
and PhD Programmes. Between 2001-2010 more than 6.600 Scholarships were
given. Along with the Scholarships, the selected Scholars applied to
professional development fund, promoted their studies through the Roma
Interregional Scholarship and Roma Supplementary Scholarship Grants
Programmes launched on the basis of RMUSP.
The OSI supported the Programme with 11,707,800 � (14,000,000 USD)
throughout 10 Programme years. For the initial 6 years the Programme
overall annual budget was 1,000,000, USD. Since 2007, the Programme
received 2,000,000 USD for operational Programmes (RMUSP, RSSGP, RISP)
as well as administration.
The recent statistical analysis of the current data base of the
programme has indicated the aggregated figure of drop out of between
1-4th year of studies to be approximately 43% in the core programme
countries. While the retention figures grow if the graduation term is to
consider 5th and 6th year of integrated studies, the overall graduation
of the Program does not exceed 34% of total scholarships given in 10
academic years. The study indicated the highest drop out rates (60%) in
the initial year of schooling and a drop down in attrition in the 3rd
and 4th year of education, as well as the similarity of drop out pattern
in the Programme countries with Affirmative Action (Romania, Serbia).
Finally, the study found that the more years a scholar was supported by
the programme the more likely the scholar was to graduate. To this end,
reasons underlying and the interpretations to be given of the drop out
dynamics will be one of the main focuses of the study
In parallel with this study, REF has commissioned a study of the
Romaversitas programmes in Hungary and in Macedonia to provide some
comparative analysis of the success of different approaches to
supporting Roma students in higher education. The consultant for the
RMUSP drop out study is expected to collaborate as necessary with the
Romaversitas consultant(s) to ensure consistency of approaches. This
collaboration will be organized by REF.
Objective
As RMUSP has been running for 10 scholarship years, the REF/SP would
like to conduct an external evaluation with a focus on drop outs in the
Programme, as well as on several other aspects of the Programme. To be
able to document the Programme's success in meeting the Programme goals,
as well as identifying the areas of challenge in the Programme
(attrition, opportunism in initial years of support), the study will be
carried out among 400 current as well as graduates Scholars and
drop-outs of the Programme in 4 Programme countries (Hungary, Macedonia,
Romania, Serbia). The results of the study will be analyzed to measure
effectiveness of the Programme as well as build relevant strategies for
further development of the Programme.
The objectives of the evaluation are the following:
� an assessment of the effectiveness, efficiency of the management,
coordination and project administration from REF/SP and Programme
countries
� an assessment of selection and decision making processes from the
perspectives of being appropriate, objective, transparent and applied
consistently
� tracing the educational history of a random sample of approximately
100 students (both scholars, graduates and rejected applicants) in each
country to verify the statistical analysis already conducted by REF by
and determine whether they graduated with a degree or not.
� an assessment of the efficiency and impact of the RMUSP Scheme from
the perspective of other stakeholders of the Programme
� an assessment of the reasons for drop outs among the different groups
of applicants
� elaboration on 15-20 case studies in order to be able to present the
Programme actual analysis of Drop-out in the Programme as well as the
impact on different scholars (4 countries, at least 2 people- from the
supported for more than 1 year and dropped out, 1 person - dropped out
in the initial year of support, 2 people- graduated)
� To assess the cost per graduate
The assessment of each aspect listed above should include an assessment
over the lifetime of the Programme, indicating whether outcomes
improved, remained the same, or got worse.
Tasks
In order to accomplish the objectives, the consultant will use a mixed
approach combining qualitative with quantitative approach using as
research methods: document analysis, literature review, questionnaire,
individual and focus group interviews, and case study.
Activities implied by the work of the consultant/s:
� Reading and analysis of Programme documents
� Elaborating the questionnaires and interview guidelines
� Data gathering through individual interviews, questionnaire survey
(face to face interviews) and focus group interviews
� Analyses of the Programme results
� Elaborating database (electronic files with audio records from
interviews)
� Analysis of data gathered and report writing
The specific number of individual interviews, focus group discussion and
questionnaires to be applied will be reflected in the budget of the
proposal, which will be an annex to the contract of the consultant.
Deliverables
� Individual interviews guidelines per category of subjects
� Focus group discussion guides
� Intermediary research report
� Final research report
Final report will have approximate 40-50 pages, including an executive
summary of no more than 3 pages but excluding any annexes, delivered in
electronic format in English, Word document, Times New Roman 12, line
spacing 1.5.
It is expected that this assignment will start in July 20th and take 40
working days, with the intermediary research report due after
approximately 30 working days. The final report will be due on October
20nd, 2010.
Supervising the work of the consultant:
The work of the consultant will be supervised by Nino Chelidze and Mihai
Surdu from REF.
The work will be delivered to
Nino Chelidze, REF/SP Program Manager
Mark Center
Terez Korut 46, 1066
Budapest, Hungary
[email protected]
Supervisor will provide written feedback on the research instruments
(interview guides and questionnaires) and on the intermediary and final
research
report.
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