After the suspension of mobility (outgoing and incoming) in the winter semester 2020/2021 due to the Covid19 virus pandemic and the lack of favorable epidemiological conditions for normal travel, stay and teaching, the International Relations Office of the University of Sarajevo (in cooperation with vice deans and coordinators for international relations of university members) opened a calls for incoming and outgoing mobility during the winter semester and organized the admission of foreign students to the summer semester 2020/2021.
Approximately 150 students of the University of Sarajevo were given the opportunity to go abroad next semester, with many considering them to cancel due to the current situation with the pandemic, and the lock-down in most European countries. When it comes to incoming students at the University of Sarajevo, a much smaller (but not insignificant) number comes to us – 15 of them in the next semester.
On that occasion, a Welcome Day was held for our incoming students who will spend the upcoming summer semester at our university, mostly through the Erasmus+ program. Students come from France, Italy, Austria, Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Estonia and Spain.
Due to epidemiological conditions, the Welcome Day was held online, where students were introduced to the University of Sarajevo, the city of Sarajevo, and provided with academic and practical information that will be useful for faster and better acclimatization in the city. In cooperation with the Erasmus Student Network, we have enabled them to “pair” with local students in order to help them and provide information about life in Sarajevo.
In addition to successfully contracted courses and activities that will be studied / worked in the coming months at our university, a great advantage for visiting students is the fact that Sarajevo (and the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina) is currently in a favorable situation when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic, due to the smaller number of patients, no special measures have been introduced in relation to other countries in the region and Europe, where everyday normal life is stopped because of the lock-down.
Incoming visiting students will stay until July 2021, when they officially finish their teaching obligations, and we hope that in that period they will achieve positive results and experience at least half of the mobility in Sarajevo and BiH that former visiting students had before the pandemic.
