OPENING OF FACULTY OF ECONOMICS’ DEPARTMENT IN BUJANOVAC

A department of the Subotica-based Faculty of Economics was opened in Bujanovac on Friday, October 28, 2011. The first generation of 69 students, who will attend the classes in both Serbian in Albanian, enrolled in the 2011/2012 academic year. The classes for students from the Serbian and Roma communities will be held in Serbian, while students from the Albanian community, during their four years' long studying, will attend the classes in 14 subjects in Albanian. The studying of all the students shall be financed from the budget. The establishment of the department of the Faculty of Economics is an example of systemic solving of the issue of higher education in South Serbia. This is a true example of cooperation of national minorities, as well as of joint work on providing the conditions for higher education of the young in a multiethnic environment.

Minister Milan Markovic, President of the Coordination Body of the Government of the Republic of  Serbia for the Municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja, said at the opening of the department that that was a historic day for Bujanovac, because a three years’ long work of the Coordination Body, the Ministry of Education and Science, the University of Novi Sad, the Faculty of Economics in Subotica, the State University of Tetovo, representatives of the Government of the AP (Autonomous Province) of Vojvodina, the Office of the High Commissioner on National Minorities, the OSCE Mission to Serbia, the US Embassy in Serbia, the British Embassy in Serbia, representatives of the municipality of Bujanovac, the Albanian National Council, as  well as of other representatives of the international community in our country, had been completed.

“The opening of this faculty is an opportunity for Bujanovac’s young people from various communities to have a better future in comparison with their past”, Minister Markovic pointed out and underscored that education was one of the ways for Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja to revive their economies.

Minister Markovic said that the Coordination Body would continue providing scholarships to South Serbia's young that wish to study.

On that occasion, Zarko Obradovic, Minister of Education and Science, pointed out that education was equally important to all the people. He underscored that Serbia took care of education in  the languages of national minorities, and that it proved that by having opened the faculty in Bujanovac.

Dimitrios Kypreos, Head of the OSCE Mission to Serbia, voiced hope that the faculty would become the center for businessmen that would work on the regional economic and cultural development.

Mary Warlick, the US Ambassdor to Serbia, said that „this is a wonderful day for South Serbia“. She added that the opening of the faculty in Bujanovac was „a great thing“ and   commended  the engagment of all those who had contributed to the successful opening of the department.

Riza Halimi, a member of the Parliament of the Republic of Serbia, stated that the opening of the Faculty of Economics' department in Bujanovac was very good for education of the young in their mother tongue.
 
„This project has every chance of being sustainable and of helping the citizens get employed, as well as of contributing to the regional economic development“, Mr. Halimi said.

The opening event was attended by Michael Davenport, the British Ambassador to Serbia, too, who along with the Ministers and peer representatives of the international community in Serbia presented matriculation books to a number of students.

The municipality of Bujanovac, for the department's needs, spared the premises of the „Vuk Karadzic“ civic center, the adaptation of which was funded by the Coordination Body.The necessary IT equipment was provided by the Coordination Body and the United Nations’ PBILD Program, while the classrooms were fitted out by the municipality of Bujanovac.

Students of the Faculty of Economics in Bujanovac, which is situated on the premises of the renovated civic center, will be thought in Serbian by seven professors of the Faculty of Economics from Subotica, as well as in Albanian by five assistant professors of the Faculty of Economics from Tetovo, who will be teaching in the capacity of visiting professors.