Two of Southeast Europe Universities Sign MoU in Science advancements

Tuzla and Zagreb University representatives

Universities in Southeast Europe are increasingly co-operating with each other in an effort to strengthen the academic community, as a result of the EU strategy for the Danube region that was adopted by the European Commission in December 2010.

The strategy was developed to address common educational challenges and co-ordinate between existing policies and initiatives.

The Southeast European member universities are from Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Serbia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia and Kosovo. They are focused on co-operation in science, student mobility and joint research projects. The latest BiH academic co-operation was established between the University of Tuzla and Croatia’s University of Zagreb, with a goal to boost advancements in science in the region.

“I see this co-operation of our two universities as an excellent example of European and trans-European co-operation. I think that this co-operation in the region is part of a large and important trend in creating one universal educational standard in Europe: we learn together, exchange students, professors, conduct joint projects. This idea will allow people to get to know each other better and help the spread of a European spirit throughout the region,” Croatia President Ivo Josipovic told.

Enver Halilovic, dean of the University of Tuzla, agreed.

“Today, the focus of academic co-operation is on student and teacher mobility, on the European dimension of higher education, and in partnering on joint applications for European projects and their implementation,” Halilovic told SETimes.

Aleksa Bjelisa, dean of the University of Zagreb, said the programme is one of many regional initiatives.

“Networking of universities, networking of doctoral programme of studies, and raising their capacity is an important priority now. That is something we are intensely working on, as there are many regional initiatives under way,” Bjelisa told SETimes.

Dalibor Soldatic, vice president of international co-operation at the University of Belgrade, said that Serbian universities are equal participants in regional academic co-operation.

“These co-operations are based on students, professors, researchers and programme exchanges, as well as on joint participation in EU projects. University co-operation has a reciprocal influence and contributes to co-operation among countries, but a co-operation among countries contributes to co-operation of their universities also, as almost all were state-financed,”