Prime Minister of the Republic of Srpska Zeljka Cvijanovic delivered a lecture to attendants of the ‘Students and Science” Scientific Conference organized at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Banja Luka about “The Support Role of the Government of the Republic of Srpska to Science and Technology Development, Education and Active Participation of Youth in the Society”.
Prime Minister Cvijanovic stated that higher education was crucial for development not only of the education system but of the entire society since the people educated in higher education system assume the leaders’ roles in all segments of the society.
“Since 2007 a lot has been done with regard to internationalization of the system of higher education, opening to the world and its harmonization with contemporary development of the European higher education area /ЕХЕА/”, the Prime Minister said.
The Prime Minister emphasized that this process should be intensified and at the same time work on strengthening of institutes within higher education which are capable to implement good quality projects and thus improve universities.
Prime Minister said that scientific work and teaching process should be more firmly connected and that primary responsibility in this sense were on the higher education institutions.
“It is necessary to increase the share of scientific research in in the overall volume of work of academic staff and connect results of their work with the market and to commercialize them to the extent which is purposeful and needed”, Prime Minister stressed.
Speaking about budget allocations for higher education, Prime Minister said that this year around 75 million have been allocated from the budget position of the Ministry of Education and Culture for higher education. Compared to 2010 when the budget for higher education totaled 57 million, it becomes obvious that the Government made outstanding efforts to increase the budget for higher education.
Prime Minister added that in the past ten years the Government, using its own sources in the Development Programe and foreign credits, invested more than BAM 105 million in the sector of higher education. Those funds were used for improvement of infrastructure at public universities and expansion and improvement of capacities of student housing buildings. Prime Minister further specified that this year 13 million has been designated for the purposes pertaining the students standard, accommodation and food, students scholarships, financing of student organizations, etc.
Prime Minister pointed out that students in the Republic of Srpska have been given a chance to participate in the higher education reform, formally and actually.
“Under the Laws on Higher Education, on Students’ Union and on Students’ Organizations, students in Republic of Srpska have the right to participate in decision making in management bodies of higher education institutions and also through students organizations deal with the programs and projects relevant for students and manage international students cooperation”, Prime Minister of the Republic of Srpska said.
Acting Dean of the University of Banja Luka, Radoslav Gajanin, stated that the University, the Government and respective Government ministries have provided full support to organization of this Conference.
“This Conference is important hence students have the opportunity to publish their works for the first time. It is also multidisciplinary and connects different scientific fields while students coming from different faculties can exchange views and ideas they would realize during or after their studies”, Gajanin said.
President of the Organization Committee of the ‘Students and Science’ Conference, Marija Puljarevic emphasized that the Conference had international character and that many lectures and competitions from various scientific areas have been held. She said that this Conference was the only one of this kind in BiH and in the region.
This Conference has been organized for the tenth time by the Students’ Parliament of the Banja Luka University.
The Conference was also attended by the Minister of Science and Technology of the Republic of Srpska, Jasmin Komic, representatives of students organizations and many university students and university professors.
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Source: vladars
