After years of war, poor funding and chronic political infighting, universities in BiH have fallen behind those in much of the rest of Europe.BiH students in public faculties typically are taught in the most out-moded way: listening to a professor lecture and taking notes. Practical experience is rare. Equipment is old, technology spotty and libraries empty. There is little impetus for change.
Reporters from the Center for Investigative Reporting compiled the following list of recommen-dations for improving higher education in Bosnia and Herzegovina from reports, interviews and the experiences of some schools experimenting with change discovered while researching “Universities Failing the Grade.”
BiH universities have degenerated into some of the worst in Europe, in large part because officials support 13 education agencies. Croatia spends six times more per student than the 500 euros a year BiH spends but, students, alumni and business also don’t contribute their fair shares. Lack of money has kept schools from recovering from war damage or updating their libraries and laboratories.
CIN attends a late-night Friday lecture with dozens of bored students for a look at teaching and learning in BiH universities.
Two years after Bosnia and Herzegovina joined a European-wide effort to reform, improve and unify universities, the country ranks dead-last among 45 participants in reaching that goal. Higher education in BiH remains under-funded and over politicized. Professors too often teach boring classes and do little research. Students increasingly are moving to private colleges – or to classes in other countries.
It took years of effort, but at a contentious July meeting in South Africa, Mostar’s Old Town was finally added to the United Nation’s World Heritage List, giving it status as a unique cultural place on the globe.
A lifeline into and out of a city under siege a decade ago, a tunnel beneath the Sarajevo airport forgotten by residents and snubbed by officials as a historical memorial, has nevertheless become an unlikely magnet for tourists.
Why has a country full of buried treasures lost the will to exploit them? Too often, archeological wonders beneath the surface of BiH stay unstudied or are allowed to decay unless international scientists get involved.
As the Sarajevo Film Festival, which brings worldwide attention to the work of regional filmmakers, wound down this weekend, some BiH filmmakers were asking why most of this year”s limited funding from the Film Foundation went to Croatian directors.
A local film industry is still a dream to many Bosnian filmmakers. Many are asking if the government is doing enough to support the building of an industry that could be a major economic help to the country as well as a source of pride in its post-war future.
The usual divisive politics between BiH’s two entities has left Republika Srpska with practically no filmmaking at all, except for student films.
The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIN) in Sarajevo is unique in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the first organization of its kind to be established in Balkans. CIN is dedicated to investigative reporting, aimed toward providing fair and unbiased information, based on evidences and solid proof, to BiH citizens who need to make educated decisions.
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