On 18 March 2010, students at the Faculty of Civil Engineering in “Džemal Bijedić” University in Mostar had an opportunity to hear a lecture by Prof. Dr. Sead Pašić, on the Bologna Process and the European Area of Higher Education and Research. The lecture, which was part of the “Thematic Weeks” project funded by the European Union, proved to be enormously popular with students.

Dr. Pašić’s interactive approach sparked a series of questions and follow-up discussion.

“I will not give you a stereotype of what the Bologna Process is; rather, I will explore ways of applying the Bologna Process in Bosnia and Herzegovina, or – as I like to say – the Bosnian Bologna way,” Dr. Pašić said. “Generally speaking, Bosnia and Herzegovina has made only a small amount of progress. There are a number of reasons for this. First, the way the state is organized means that there is no strategy and no platform, and there are no funds for implementation of the Bologna reforms. At the university level, the necessary changes are being implemented mainly through Tempus projects. There is resistance and this is not simply because the state is not ready – teachers and students are not ready either.”

Dr. Pasic sought to draw a contrast between the benefits the Bologna Process has delivered in EU countries and the practice in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“The Bologna Process, among other things, means working in small groups, interactive lectures, free movement of students from one university to another, the chance for students to choose where to study, knowing that their qualifications will be recognized throughout Europe. This is not the case in Bosnia and Herzegovina.”

Students are becoming increasingly critical of the way in which the Bologna Process is not being applied in the BiH higher education system. They called on all stakeholders, particularly responsible politicians and professors, to take appropriate steps to bring educational opportunity in this country up to EU standard.

Hilzema Tabaković, representing the Ministry of Education of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton, said the canton and the state are working to implement Bologna Process provisions. Also taking part in the discussion was Dr. Armin Hadrović, Dean of the Engineering Faculty at “Džemal Bijedić” University.

There was a general consensus that lectures such as the one given by Dr. Pašić offer a forum for disseminating and discussing information about the Bologna process.

Ministers of European countries in charge of higher education signed the Bologna Declaration in 1999, thus starting the Bologna process aimed at creation of a single European system of university teaching and research by 2010, simultaneously recognizing and preserving diversity of national specificities (culture, language, tradition etc.) Bosnia and Herzegovina signed the Bologna Declaration on September 18th 2003.