Roma Education Fund

The Law and Humanities Program (LHP) established in 2004 with the funds coming from the Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future“ is managed by the Roma Education Fund (REF) Scholarships Programme.LHP operates in Moldova, Russia andUkraine.Between 2004-2010 577 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 and the Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future“ are now inviting researchers and experts in education to carry out a full scale evaluation of the Law and Humanities Program (LHP) administered in Russia, Moldova and Ukraine to learn about the overall impact as well as study the particular outcomes of the programme.

The Evaluation will be carried out in three program countries between May 5th and July 20th, 2010. The work period may not exceed 40 working days. The draft, as well as final evaluation papers need to be delivered in English.

The experts, individual or in groups, who have relevant experience and credentials (Russian and/or Romanese will be an asset) andwish to apply for carrying out the external evaluation of the project will have to submit:

  • CV/s
  • Study Proposal – framework and methodology, timeframesand 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 by the deadline of 5 :00 pm, Friday, April 23rd, 2010.

Roma Education Fund

Terms of Reference for Law and Humanities Program external evaluation

Project :

Introduction

The Law and Humanities Program (LHP) programme was established in 2004 under the Open Society Institute Roma Memorial University Scholarship Program with the funds coming from the Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future“. Since 2008, LHP has been fully operated by the Roma Education Fund (REF) Scholarships Programme team since being transferred to REF from the Open Society Institute. REF is assisted in administration of the Scholarship Programme by a network of Coordinators in countries. The Scholarship Programme planned for two rounds of four years is currently in the middle of the second round. In 2009-2010 LHP administered the 6th year of the academic Programme.

LHP operates in Moldova, Russia andUkraine. The goal of the programme is to develop a regional network of 50 or more Roma students and graduates specialised mainly in Law but also in Journalism, Political Science and other fields of humanities in Moldova, Russia and Ukraine and 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.

LHP provides support through annual Scholarships to Roma students to enable them pursue University level education of Bachelor’s, Master’s and PhD programs. In between 2004-2010 more than 577 Scholarships were given in Moldova, Russia and Ukraine, along with the Scholarships, the selected Scholars received grants for language tutoring and professional development, participated in in-country and international internship Programs, joined student conferences and trainings, etc.

The Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future“ has supported the Programme with 283,393 € for the initial four and a half years (6 months preparatory period for the Scholarships) between 2004-2008. The Project was extended for the following 2 years with an additional 266,110 Euro (2008-2009 – 130,630 Euro, 2009-2010 – 135,480 Euro). OSI and REF Scholarships Programme has matched the LHP with 30-40% of funding during the programme period (itemized yearly breakdowns available for reference)

Objective

As LHP has been running for 6 scholarship years,the Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future“ and REF would like to conduct an external evaluation of several 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, the evaluation will be carried out among all current scholars as well as alumni of the programme. The results of the evaluation will be analyzed to measure effectiveness of further programme support

The objectives of the evaluation are the following:

  • an assessment of the effectiveness, efficiency and client-orientation of the management and project administration from REF and programme countries
  • an assessment of whether the selection and decision making processes were appropriate, objective, transparent and applied consistently
  • an assessment of LHP as a scholar support scheme, eligibility criteria, programme framework and timeframes
  • an assessment of the efficiency and impact of the programme components (internships, language training, professional development)
  • an assessment of the participants’ achievements, both academic success and labor market outcomes (when applicable)
  • elaboration on 6 - 12 case studies in order to be able to present the programme actual impact on different scholars (3 countries, at least 2 people- 1 Alumna/us + 1 Scholar)

The assessment of each aspect listed above should include an assessment over the lifetime of the program, 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
  • Analysis of the student database
  • 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 25-30 pages, including an executive summary of no more than 3 pages, delivered in English, Word document, Times New Roman 12, line spacing 1.5.

It is expected that this assignment will take 40 working days, with the intermediary research report due after approximately 30 working days.

Supervising the work of the consultant:

The work of the consultant will be supervised by Nino Chelidze and Toby Linden from REF.

The work will be delivered to

Wanja Hargens

The Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future“, / Stiftung EVZ

Lindenstr. 20-25

10969 Berlin

Supervisor will provide written feedback on the research instruments (interview guides and questionnaires) and on the intermediary and final research report.