Bujanovac’s new multilingual university department: solving the language dilemma
In March 2012, the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Knut Vollebaek made his first visit to the new university department of economics in Bujanovac, southern Serbia, since attending its opening last autumn. The fact that this department even exists is testament to the High Commissioner’s persistent encouragement and the constructive co-operation of a wide range of governmental and academic stakeholders.
During his visit, the High Commissioner was able to see the results of this perseverance: Albanian and Serbian students studying together in a shared space.
The academic facility was three years in the making. At some points, numerous delays and administrative obstacles made the project seem impossible to realize, and as recently as last summer, when students should have been enrolling, another postponement seemed inevitable.
Yet today, 93 students have settled in to university life, on their way to becoming the first alumni of what the High Commissioner hopes will develop into a leading example of how multilingual and multi-ethnic tertiary education can be delivered in deeply divided communities.
The Bujanovac department, a branch of the University of Novi Sad’s Faculty of Economics in Subotica, is special because it is the first truly multilingual and multi-ethnic higher education institute in southern Serbia. “This is an example of how multilingual education can be used in practice to solve the dilemma of either mother-tongue or state-language education,” Vollebaek declared at its opening.
The department offers courses in marketing and economics in both Serbian and Albanian languages. About two-thirds of the first-year courses offered are in Albanian. The proportion shifts to about two-thirds state-language courses at the higher levels. The department is state accredited and all the students receive public financing via various official bodies. Roughly half the students are ethnic Serbs and half are ethnic Albanians.
The problem of separation
Bujanovac is located in the Preševo valley, where large numbers of Albanians reside, essentially living separately from their Serbian compatriots. This area has experienced escalation of inter-ethnic strife in the past and remains tense even today. In 2000, a year after the end of the Kosovo war, an Albanian insurgency erupted inside a NATO-established buffer zone that included Bujanovac. More recently, tensions have flared following the arrests of five local men on charges of war crimes just before the Serbian elections on 6 May. Barely two weeks later, on 17 May, a local police checkpoint close to Kosovo was attacked by unknown gunmen. There are some in the region who still aspire to the unification of the Preševo valley with Kosovo, which would have destabilizing effects across the wider region.
In addition, southern Serbia is economically depressed, and the lack of opportunities for both higher education and employment leads youth of all ethnicities to depart for bigger cities. Ethnic Albanians predominantly go to Albanian-language universities in Prishtinë/Priština, Tirana or Tetovo. Many do not return.
The High Commissioner has long been concerned about this region and is aiming to address the root causes of inter-ethnic tensions in addition to responding to current issues. He is specifically mandated to use quiet diplomacy to identify and seek early resolution of ethnic tensions that might endanger peace, stability or friendly relations among OSCE participating States. Since the institution was established by the OSCE in 1992, Vollebaek and his predecessors have focused on education as one of several tools for long-term conflict prevention, fulfilling his mandate to provide … ‘early action’ in regard to tensions involving national minority issues.
One of the effects of the divisions in the area is that Serbian and Albanian children study in different, mono-linguistic, mono-ethnic schools. As the High Commissioner consistently points out during his country visits, educational separation based on ethnic or religious background cannot lead to integrated societies. Instead, such entrenched divisions make it possible for tensions between the different ethnic groups to fester, creating the potential for conflict. “From an early age, education sets children on a path that could lead to integration or to separation,” Vollebaek explains. At school, they learn their languages and their history. At school, they get to meet each other and make friends with each other. When children are separated from one another by language and by ethnicity, they are less likely to make contact and are more likely to build separate futures.
From an early age, education sets children on a path that could lead to integration or to separation. At school, they learn their languages and their history. At school, they get to meet each other and make friends with each other. When children are separated from one another by language and by ethnicity, they are less likely to make contact and are more likely to build separate futures.
Getting the ball rolling
The university department in Bujanovac was established to address these issues. Its story began in 2009, when the High Commissioner and the Serbian Government commissioned a feasibility study on higher education development in Preševo and Bujanovac. This initiative builds on an earlier project to set up a local department in the neighbouring town of Medveđa, which began offering lectures with simultaneous interpretation into Albanian in 2009.
In the basis of numerous interviews with stakeholders, the study concluded that a multilingual education institution would be a positive step toward inter-ethnic integration in these municipalities, providing local youth with the opportunity to study and socialize together, maybe building lasting friendships. Ethnic Albanians should be able to follow tertiary education in their mother tongue without having to depart to universities elsewhere, it maintained. At the same time, being able to fluently speak the state language would greatly widen their career choices in Serbia. A university institution could help stimulate local economic development, drawing students and lecturers and, in the longer term, producing entrepreneurial graduates who would want to stay in the region. Based on these considerations, the study proposed establishing an institution of higher learning in Bujanovac or Preševo.
The OSCE Mission to Serbia, the European Union and the Friends of South Serbia, a group of bilateral ambassadors in Belgrade, agreed, and were strong advocates of the project from the start. However, as the study also noted, winning the support and co-operation of all the required partners, including the Serbian Government, the local authorities and the Albanian National Minority Council, was likely to be a challenge.
Building coalitions of the reluctant is part of the High Commissioner’s work. He works confidentially behind the scenes to bring the relevant stakeholders together and keep them moving forwards. Of course, he can only operate as a catalyst; the relevant parties have to choose to put aside their differences and work together to build a future for their children.
Vollebaek was able to draw on his office’s accumulated experience of how multi-ethnic higher education facilities can and should work. In 2001, for instance, the first OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, the late Max van der Stoel, was instrumental in founding the South East European University in Tetovo, in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
On the occasion of the feasibility study’s publication in Belgrade in March 2010, Vollebaek, said the experience in Tetovo would be applied in southern Serbia, while also taking local cultural and political sensitivities into account.
An inter-ministerial working group on higher education put together a plan to make this vision a reality. The first step was to set up a department of an established university in Bujanovac. Being part of a larger education institute brings the benefits of shared experience and a smoother accreditation process. Meanwhile, the Serbian Government made a firm commitment to provide the necessary political and financial support. However, in May 2011, just five months before the department was expected to open its doors, a suitable “mother institution” had still not been identified. In the months that followed, the High Commissioner and the Serbian authorities, working closely with the OSCE Mission to Serbia, tried to find a willing partner. Eventually, the Faculty of Economics in Subotica (a branch of the University of Novi Sad) agreed to open a department in Bujanovac. The University of Novi Sad is Serbia’s leading provider of multilingual tertiary education, having delivered courses in Hungarian, Romanian and Slovakian, among other languages, in addition to Serbian for several years. The Faculty of Economics of the State University of Tetovo said it could provide visiting professors who would lecture in Albanian.
The first step
The department officially began welcoming students on 28 October 2011. Miodrag Gusevski, an ethnic Serb, and Xhabir Aziri, an ethnic Albanian, were two of the first to enrol. They chose to study here because it allows them to stay in their own town, which is much less expensive for them than studying elsewhere.
Both say they appreciate the chance to socialize with students of different ethnicities. “We live in a multi-ethnic place, and mixing with members of different communities is unavoidable, whether we want it or not. I believe that communication, especially among young people, is essential and this department is a good place to start,” says Miodrag.
We live in a multi-ethnic place, and mixing with members of different communities is unavoidable, whether we want it or not. I believe that communication, especially among young people, is essential and this department is a good place to start.
Xhabir agrees: “This is the best thing for all of us who live in Bujanovac because we can only achieve something if we are united. I believe that opening this department was the best idea for the integration of different groups in society.”
Both Miodrag and Xhabir plan to stay in Bujanovac after their graduation. Miodrag already works full time as an accountant, running between his classes and the office. “I believe that there is a potential for a nice and peaceful life here, but it requires a lot of effort from all its citizens, regardless of their ethnicity,” he said.
If the department of economics in Bujanovac is to play its part in the integration of this fractured community, it will need more students like Miodrag and Xhabir who choose to stay in the town and contribute to their country or locality. It will also require the continuous support of the local and central authorities.
The High Commissioner and the OSCE Mission to Serbia will continue to monitor this department and region. They will identify potential tensions at the earliest possible stage and encourage local stakeholders to keep working together, as the establishment of the university department in Bujanovac has proven they can do to great success, for the long-term stability and prosperity of Serbia.