On February 18, 2022, International University of Sarajevo (IUS) organized a meeting for high school principals from Sarajevo and Zenica-Doboj Cantons in the facilities of the IUS campus. At the event, the high school principals from these 2 cantons had an opportunity to listen to a lecture titled “Online Teaching during the Pandemic: Challenges and Experiences” held by 3 distinguished members of the IUS staff: Associate Professor Dr. Ervin Kovačević, the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences; Mr. Enes Pivić, the Head of the IUS IT Centre and Mr. Emir Šehić, an IUS ELS Instructor and certified Teacher Trainer. In addition, the guests got acquainted with the mission and vision of the International University of Sarajevo as well as its current activities.
The opening speech was delivered by the IUS Rector, Prof. Dr. Ahmet Yıldırım, who emphasized the importance of quality education and the efforts IUS puts in making this education available to a large number of students from Bosnia and Herzegovina through the scholarship program. Every year, IUS offers a great number of scholarships, from 10% to 100%, while the average scholarship of a student from Bosnia and Herzegovina is 65%.
During the lectures held by Prof. Kovačević, Mr. Pivić and Mr. Šehić, the attendees learned about the challenges and experiences IUS faced with when COVID-19 pandemic started. IUS was able to very successfully transfer the entire education system online in a very short time yielding very positive outcomes for both the academic staff and students during 3 consecutive online semesters. In the Q&A session following the lectures, the principals exchanged their own challenges and experiences in their high schools.
After a brief presentation about IUS, the high school principals had several questions. They were mostly interested in the number of international students at IUS, scholarship test questions, English language lessons, tuition fees, IUS dormitories and rules and regulations of the University. The principals expressed their willingness to promote IUS and its upcoming scholarship testing exam to their students.
