MEĐUNARODNA SARADNJA UNSA: VIZIJA 2030 – STRATEGIJA BRAIN GAIN? / UNIVERSITY OF SARAJEVO INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION TOWARDS A VISION 2030: BRAIN GAIN STRATEGY?

Abstract

Academic mobility is a valuable and indispensable mechanism in each country's higher education quality assurance system. It also contributes to building and improving the capacities of individual universities because it enables the introduction of positive and proven teaching practices, modern teaching and research methods, and operational and administrative processes. The added value of mobility is the establishment of personal contacts and professional networking of teaching, scientific, artistic and non-teaching staff of the University of Sarajevo (from now on: "UNSA"), which has a long-term effect on the development of teaching, scientific and technological capacity. Studying through mobility gets an international note - students understand their work in a global context, their CV is enriched with new experiences, their knowledge of a foreign language (s) is improved, and after graduation, they become a competitive workforce. Teaching / scientific, artistic and non-teaching staff gain international experience through mobility, improve themselves, participate in active professional development, and increase the quality of the working environment. In the last 15 years, the University of Sarajevo has had over 2,500 outgoing mobility while hosting more than 1,500 international students, teaching / scientific, artistic and non-teaching staff. The mobility of students and staff significantly improves both the quality and the professional standard of UNSA activities. It indirectly contributes to the development and transformation of society as a whole. Through the integration of UNSA, many processes are uniform and simplified, but still, the heterogeneity and specificity of each organizational unit are present. In addition to all the benefits of student mobility, the most significant administrative challenge is the equivalence and recognition of ECTS credits earned at foreign institutions upon return to home institutions. Student services are faced with many formalities around keeping registers and other administrative forms that need to be tailored to exchange students. The current legal regulations in higher education do not value participation in mobility programs, which is undoubtedly not motivating for students and staff to get involved in them. On the contrary, the current vague legal framework and administrative barriers are significantly demotivating for students as they lose a semester or school year due to participation in mobility programs. It is necessary to develop more adequate regulations that will encourage more frequent, productive, more straightforward and better implementation of academic mobility for students. This could be achieved through participation in programs intended for international students (one-year specialist study, master's degree, dual education, summer schools, etc.). It is necessary to develop mechanisms for adequate evaluation of mobility for teaching, artistic and scientific staff of UNSA, which is particularly important for advancement to higher academic titles. It is also crucial to promote the exchange of administrative staff, which is often unjustifiably neglected, to improve the administrative processes at UNSA and its (sub) organizational units. To achieve this, we should be focused on developing cooperation with potential partners interested in administrative / non-teaching staff mobility.