Sarajevo, 2 March 2010 - The educational system in Bosnia and Herzegovina leaves much to be desired, but one of the issues that affects the country's budding intellectuals the most is corruption within the universities. In the past years, the public have witnessed several scandals involving the alleged "purchase" of passing grades with either money or sexual favors, depending on the professor's preference. These cases are currently being investigated by the Prosecutor's Office of Tuzla. Determined to lead by example and confront this issue at all levels, the largest higher education institution in the country, the University of Sarajevo, launched its second anti-corruption initiative on January 14. A number of activities have been planned within the project, with a full readiness of the University to work with other relevant stakeholders in BiH society on fighting corruption and other forms of misconduct.

"The University must resolutely fight against any form of misconduct, especially against corruption," stressed professor Faruk Čaklovica, President of the University of Sarajevo. "We have invited all persons who have any knowledge about any form of non-academic conduct to report it to the President's or Deans' offices, or to the University's Commission, which is in charge of the planning and implementation of all anti-corruption activities."

With this anti-corruption initiative, for the first time anonymous reports will be accepted as well. To provide convenient access to the Commission, within its official web site the University of Sarajevo has created a special page with an electronic form for reporting corruption. This report, when filled out, can be sent to the Commission by e-mail or fax, whether signed or anonymous.

Getting involved

All anti-corruption activities will be implemented jointly with the students, who are represented by the Student Parliament of the University of Sarajevo (SPUS).

"We believe that the problem of corruption is a current priority at the University of Sarajevo, and students and professors should work together to solve it, because corruption has already enormously hurt the reputation of the largest university in Bosnia and Herzegovina," said Adi Džamalija, President of the SPUS. "However, the students are too passive, whether because they are afraid to take action or simply not interested. But this is a problem which should be addressed by all of us, together. Therefore, the Student Parliament of the University of Sarajevo will organize actions aimed to raise the awareness of students about corruption and the situation in our university."

One of the first activities will be a campaign under the slogan "University of Sarajevo professors, employees and students in the fight against corruption and misconduct". The campaign will mostly be implemented through anti-corruption ads and posters in all the University's colleges and academies.

Teaming up

Besides these joint activities, some independent initiatives have been launched by various student associations at the University of Sarajevo. For example, the association of students from the Political Science Faculty "SPONA" ("Link") has proposed the creation of anti-corruption teams at the universities, in order to find adequate mechanisms to address students' complaints related to irregularities in the work of the professors and administrative staff.

"We believe that this project will be implemented soon and significantly facilitate the work of the universities, thus restoring the reputation of the academic community," said Adnan Bajrić, project coordinator.

Apart from the internal initiatives, the University of Sarajevo also called for anticorruption cooperation with external stakeholders, such as the European Union Police Mission. In one of the first steps, the University President's office approached the EUPM for permission to present the "Corruption takes everything from you" public awareness campaign and Krimolovci crime hotline number 080 020 505 in the University's bi-monthly magazine "Info UNSA", giving the students more information about corruption, its effects on society and means to fight it.

Kilian Wahl, Chief of EUPM Press and Public Information Office, welcomed this initiative.

"The anti-corruption campaign, which the EUPM and BiH law enforcement agencies have been jointly implementing since the beginning of December 2009, exactly aims to change attitudes and to educate on how each individual can contribute to the fight against crimes such as corruption," said Wahl. "One of our main goals is to have each institution tackle the problem of corruption internally, showing accountability for its own actions. Initiatives such as this at the University of Sarajevo are the first steps towards a safer and fairer environment, created jointly by all BiH citizens through combined effort and responsibility."