In order to succeed in terms of teaching and learning the department must have highly qualified and experienced academic staffs that are looking forward to constantly develop their skills and stayed updated to the last social and technological developments (EPOKA University Framework Strategy 2018-2022, Areas A, F3, F7). Furthermore, there should be a systematic collection of graduation theses done at the department in order to create a collection of academic and practical materials that are case-based referring to the Albanian and the regional market (i.e. Western Balkans). Also, students and academic staff should have the possibility to access online data sources of the university from outside the campus. The number of prestigious online sources should be enhanced furthermore to make the department competitive also in the international market, and to provide possibilities for students to access the most updated sources during their study period (EPOKA University Framework Strategy 2018-2022, G.38). In addition, the BUS department must have annual subscriptions with newspapers and business journals, to give the possibility to faculty and students having access in cases, videos and other materials. Finally, the department must focus to provide short online courses on behalf of already established platforms (e.g. edX, Coursera, etc), or create its own digital platform.

Specific goals for theme 1:

Goal 1.1: Increase the efficiency of academic staff and the quality of their publications.

Goal 1.2: To have a better relationship among the triangle: academic staff-students-industry.

Goal 1.3: To build a “thesis directory data”.

Goal 1.4: To build a good infrastructure to make easier the access to sources for both students and lecturers.

Measures in order to reach mentioned goals under Theme 1:

Measure 1.1: Arranging flexible working hours for the academic staff and defining goals to be achieved. Design “bonus” payment systems according to the quality of publications and teaching.

Measure 1.2: To create an “industry network directory” (IND) of the department, and managed only by the department in full compliance with the regulations of Epoka University.

Measure 1.3: To provide a good thesis guideline, to design a new thesis evaluation system that would be more specific, to take advantage of technology and build an online “Thesis Source Directory” in order to create a handbook of Albanian business cases.

Measure 1.4: Technology infrastructure so that students can study at their places as they were at the university. Recording courses in order to overcome absences (should be done in a controlled manner).

To recruit good student from high schools there should be cooperation with high schools representatives, creating competitions, workshops, and other meetings, especially for last year high schools students (EPOKA University Framework Strategy 2018-2022, Areas A, E, & Goals G.35-G.38). Moreover, the Department must ensure that the quality of the students will be high during the studies and afterward, by respecting the conditions stated in the previous paragraphs.

Specific goals for the Theme 2:

Goal 2.1: Involving students clubs to arrange different competitions in order to get the best high school students.

Measures in order to reach mentioned goals under Theme 2:

Measure 2.1: “Brain Ring” Competition powered by the student club Marketing Zone should continue. Further competitions should be arranged, like it was the “Dream Business” in the past years.

PhD studies should be designed according to the need of the market and according to this, registrations must occur. Enrollment procedures for PhD students should be redesigned and the interview of the Scientific Committee must be added as one of the core evaluation criteria. On the other side, because the number of PhD applicants is low the BUS Department should collaborate with other departments to create one or more hybrid interdepartmental doctoral schools, or try to change the advertisement techniques and budget for the PhD program promotion. These efforts support the department theme to recruit, educate and graduate a high-quality and diverse PhD student body (EPOKA University Framework Strategy 2018-2022, Areas A, E, & Goals G.35-G.38).     

Specific Goals for Theme 4:

Goal 4.1: Redesigning PhD enrollment procedures

Goal 4.2: Raising the number of well qualified thesis supervisors in proportion to increases in student numbers.

Goal 4.3: Improving budget and advertising.

Goal 4.4: Proposing new PhD routes.

Measures in order to reach mentioned goals under Theme 4:

Measure 4.1: Collaboration with other departments.

Measure 4.2: Collaboration with university decision making bodies such as the Faculty Board and the Academic Senate.

Measure 4.3: Negotiations with Secretary General Office for dedicating more funds to PhD advertising.

Measure 4.4: Recruiting more Associate Professors as PhD supervisors, according to the law.

Good teaching is strongly related with research and consultancy. One of the classical teaching methods business schools are adopting is the case study method and David Kolb’s experiential learning. In order to deliver high teaching quality to the students, the academic staff must be committed with research and organizational consulting experience. As mentioned also in previous paragraphs, the research environment (newspapers and journal access: e.g. Harvard Business Review materials, like cases, videos and articles) should be inspirational for scholars. Furthermore, a better balance between teaching load, research and service must be aimed The efforts further the EPOKA University Framework Strategy 2018-2022 Areas B, C, D, F.3, F.6, F.7, & Goals G.24 & G.38).

Specific goals for Theme 5:

Goal 5.1: To encourage academic staff to participate in trainings and conferences.

Goal 5.2: To negotiate with business journals, organizations, and research centers by having access for data gathering and elaboration.

Measures in order to reach mentioned goals under Theme 5:

Measure 5.1: Making the flextime part of department’s culture, by asking at the end of any research process the aimed outcomes.

Measure 5.2: Dedicating a higher budget at departmental level for journal subscriptions.

Measure 5.3: Increasing the number of internal full time faculty in proportion to the increase in student numbers to achieve a better teaching load distribution, by dedicating more time to research and consulting.

Measure 5.4: Making more case study research which will be beneficial also for teaching.