The Zenica-Doboj canton is also facing a shortage of students at universities. The increasing departure of young people across the borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) has led to the fact that fewer and fewer students enroll in universities, and children from elementary schools increasingly decide to enroll in secondary medical schools.
Going to Germany or another European Union (EU) country means a “better life” for them.
Jusuf Durakovic, rector of the University of Zenica, spoke about the lack of students in this canton. As he pointed out, entire families are leaving Zenica and the Zenica-Doboj Canton.
“There is no more motivation for children to study, because it is very difficult to get a job after graduating from college, and even when they do get a job, the wages have become miserable. Children become pragmatic and begin to think about what they need to live on. It is symptomatic that we enroll the most children in secondary school in the School of Medicine. Parents are consciously enrolling their children to become nurses, who will surely end up in the EU tomorrow because the salaries are much better,” said the rector with a great expression of concern.
He called this a serious problem for BiH, and called on managements, founders of public universities to give answers about what will happen in five to 10 years.
“We have a serious problem today. There are no children in primary schools, there are no children in secondary schools, and this problem of lack of students will be much more pronounced in five to 10 years. I think that there will be a drastic drop in the number of students enrolled in all universities and I think that certain study programs will be shut down, regardless of the fact that we adapt to the needs of the labor market. We simply do not have the number of children who want to study,” he said.
At the University of Zenica, they are trying to offer higher quality education in order to attract foreign students.
“We are trying to open study programs in foreign languages, but it doesn’t have to be only in a foreign language, because there is an interest of certain parents in having their children come here and learn our language, and we have already opened a language learning center at the University for those foreign students, so so that they could listen to classes in our language”, Durakovicpointed out.
At the end of the conversation, he noted that it is necessary to stimulate young people to stay in this country, enable those children to get apartments and work in the country, start their families and create a new population for the survival of this country.
