IUS Rector, Prof. Dr. Ahmet Yıldırım Talks to Student Magazine
Read the full interview below
IUS programs strive to satisfy labor market, follow global trends and keep up with the offer and demand
International University of Sarajevo (IUS) was founded by the Foundation for Education Development Sarajevo SEDEF in 2004/2005. It is international in character with nearly 2000 students from 45 countries, while the academic staff from 12 countries performs academic and research activities in different scientific disciplines, such as engineering, art and social sciences. We have interviewed Prof. Dr. Ahmet Yıldırım, the Rector of the International University of Sarajevo and learned more about their future plans.
Tendency towards international relations and activities
„The name International University of Sarajevo contains the word international, therefore, internationalization is one of our goals and half of our students are from different countries while the other halfare Bosnian. Our cooperation with international universities is in the field of research, whereas in the field of education we have double diploma programs with universities in Turkey, Poland and Germany, which increases our cooperation and research activities. Bosnian and Herzegovinian research resources are very limited. An agency similar to the European Research Executive Agency or an agency that would support research on the Federal level does not exist in BiH. Therefore, these limited resources force us to cooperate with international universities and receive grants from the European Union or other sources provided by the international community“ pointed out Rector Yıldırım.
Advancement of IUS programs in accordance with labor demands
IUS programs strive to satisfy the labor market, follow global trends and keep up with the offer and demand. Besides, the main goal is to stay on track with global educational institutions. The Rector highlights that the programs are designed to be competitive with international and local universities and continuously follow global education trends. „We need to follow global changes and adjust our educational system, or our curriculum according to new developments. I believe that IT sector has become the most important sector in the world in every field: medical sciences, engineering, agriculture, etc. Therefore, we try to follow this development and be on track with prestigious world universities“, said Rector Yıldırım. He emphasized that they are planning to establish new study programs related to the information technologies. „When you take a look at the education in Bosnia and Herzegovina, I think that education in engineering is the most important education. The same situation is all around the world. However, even the approach to education in engineering has changed. Leading world universities have stopped teaching classical engineering. Today, everything, in a way, is linked to the information technologies and that is why we are planning to offer new IT programs. We are also working on offering new study programs related to medical sciences because this area is very important. There are several important things in human life and I believe that health is the most important part, so we would like to focus on these two disciplines in the future“, said the Rector of the International University of Sarajevo.
Goal is to keep young people in the country
IUS is the leading university in the region regarding student and academic staff exchange within the Erasmus+ project. The Rector says that one of the goals is to see as many students from BiH diaspora as possible studying at the International University of Sarajevo: „We want such students to educate themselves at one of the best universities in Bosnia and Herzegovina and get to know their country better. We would like them to come back and contribute to Bosnia and Herzegovina“. Rector Yıldırım states that quality education has its drawbacks because most of their students go abroad: „I am really sorry for that because we offer them high quality education to be used in their own country. Of course, it is good for us, the University recognition is very important, the international community recognizes good quality education. Our graduates easily find employment in European countries, the United States of America and continue their academic studies. That is why we have a lot of graduates, especially BiH graduates, all over the world. We are very proud of that, but on the other hand, I am sorry that we have educated good students who work in other countries. We expect they will eventually come back and continue their professional life here, but, of course, certain conditions should be prepared for them. IUS provides environment for the diaspora to come back to the country and acquire their education here“.
It is necessary to see what young people need in order to thrive
In a society, young people are very often perceived as inactive, passive and idle, but numerous examples show that this is not the case. Among these examples are the students of the International University of Sarajevo. Prof. Dr. Yıldırım pointed out that good foundation and support need to be provided and under such circumstances, young people are ready to do a lot.
„It might be that generally young people seem like that, but they are not. We must be aware of the fact that the conditions might make them behave like that or they feel hopeless regarding the condition the country is in. When you look at Bosnia and Herzegovina, there is always the threat of war, political issues, instability, economic problems and people look for better jobs abroad. These things make young people even more desperate. But when I look at Bosnian students at our university, they are really smart, very active and they want more than what we usually offer. If the young generation is offered the right conditions, they are not sleepy, we do not need to wake them up. Maybe we, ourselves, need to wake up“, observes Rector Yıldırım.
IUS offers scholarships and invites students to use offered opportunities
Every year, IUS organizes scholarship testing where students have a chance to choose a study program they would like to study.
„The main mission of this university is primarily to provide exceptional education to students from Bosnia and Herzegovina. I urge young people to sit for the scholarship exam. The average scholarship we provided last year covered 54% of the tuition fee. The tuition fee is basically charged from international students and directed to Bosnian students. This is the main idea and in this way we ensure scholarships, which helps us offer young people high quality education to prepare them for future challenges because the future is going to be more challenging than ever“. The scholarship testing is in Bosnian language, free of charge and all senior high school students from BiH and the region can enter.
