According to the Proposal, an important highly sustainable outcome was the formulation of modified QA standards. At the PMB meetings in Belgrade, April 3rd, 2014, at Crete, September 20th, 2014, and in Belgrade, December 16th 2014, special Working Groups, including representatives of all partner institutions, were nominated. The preliminary version of the new Standards was issued at the meeting of the Working Group on May 15th, 2015. The proposal reflects the main general aspects of QA for doctoral studies and the situation in Serbia presented in public at the Conference in Belgrade, held on December 4th 2014. In particular, changes were oriented towards:

• emphasis on learning outcome,
• emphasis on the research part of the studies,
• better connection with the society,
• improvement of the process of supervision,
• emphasis on transferrable skills,
• transparency and accountability,
• better relation with students, especially within the process of supervision.

The final version of the new Standards for doctoral studies was discussed and adopted by the Commission for Accreditation and Quality Assurance (CAQA) and the CONUS. Based on this result, the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) adopted the Standards on June 25th, 2016. In such a way, the proposed Standards became an official by-law, as planned.

A separate activity was devoted to the Standards for doctoral studies in Arts, having in mind specific aspects of this type of studies. After getting the approval of the University of Arts and CONUS, the new Standards were adopted on December, 29th 2015.