Exchange Programmes

Higher education institutions differ significantly in terms of the extent to which they have embarked on the implementation and development of international activities and taking systemic action that can be characterised as a coherent and targeted policy or even a strategy. The implementation of international cooperation strategies depends on the coordinated work of programme and organisational structures and content. Programme structures relate to participation in various international programmes that may include student and faculty mobility, curricula internationalisation, network membership, etc. Several programmes have certainly linked individuals and institutions from Western Balkans countries and contributed to the implementation of reforms similar to those that have become standard in partner EU higher education institutions. Programmes such as Erasmus +, Erasmus Mundus, Tempus and CEEPUS have contributed immensely to the internationalisation of universities and the implementation of reforms in accordance with the Bologna principles. Participation in the new Erasmus+ programme has helped strengthen the international position of the University of Sarajevo within the European Higher Education Area (EHEA).
In the past years, the majority of international activities of the University of Sarajevo students and faculty members related to participating in international conferences and summer schools, as well as to the mobility implementation through bilateral cooperation agreements. A considerable increase in the impact of the new Erasmus programme was noticed in 2016. Mobility within the Erasmus+ programme (credit mobility) accounts for most of the international mobility (as much as 38%). The reason behind these departures is the possibility of academic and administrative exchange with partner universities from the “programme” countries. This is followed by mobility within the Erasmus Mundus and CEEPUS programmes.