Thoughts of a Bosnian

By Dijana Kant

When talking about Bosnia and Herzegovina there are many things that come to mind when the word corruption is brought up. But nowhere is this as prevalent as in the education system. This most important branch of civil life is so disfigured that one does not know where to begin the discussion. So let’s start with the ‘pros’, as they are faster to go through.

It is very cheap. For an equivalent of about 100$ a year you can afford any school at University of Sarajevo, one of the biggest universities in the world in terms of student population, consisting of 23 faculties (schools). This is provided you have the grades, and that you do well enough on the entrance exam, which most faculties require you to take. If you are accepted, you will have some additional costs (books, exam sheets and such) but it is overall a very low sum. OK, pros are done, so let’s try and get through some of the cons.

A Bosnian university typically consists of a four-year study time with two types of exams, mandatory, that you have to pass in order to not retake the year you are currently in, and non-mandatory which you can transfer between years, up to your last year when you have to pass them as well. It is the mandatory classes that are often the most difficult. A student must pass them, or wait another full school year. If you have to retake a year, you have to pay an equivalent of 50$ per course whose exam you are yet to pass. Most students lose two years, and therefore take six years to complete this four-year program.

According to the Bologna declaration there are to be no oral exams, only written ones, this of course is ignored by most universities, who claim to be fully in accordance with the declaration. This also contributes to the problem, as teachers have more leeway in an oral exam as there is no written account of what was asked and what answered for someone to call them out on it (although written exams are not much better even with the evidence left behind). Now some of the reason for the prolonged study is undoubtedly due to the laziness of the students, let’s not excuse them, but if the majority of a generation of students under-performs so badly it takes them six years to complete a four-year University, professors must be at fault too.

Let’s take a look at some examples that illustrate what I am talking about. At the Faculty of Pharmacy which is a part of the University of Sarajevo umbrella (the only one you can go to if you wish to work as a chemist or pharmacist), a student went into an oral exam, started answering a question, was interrupted, told to stop acting stupid and had her grade book thrown at her head by an experienced professor that has been employed at that position for over ten years. Another student was asked a question over the number of Neurons that fulfill a certain function. She said two, named them and explained how they fulfill their function. The professor claimed there were four and asked for the other two. The student didn’t know and failed the exam. Upon checking the book she found that there were only the two she named. So the professor was wrong, and the student suspected as much during the exam, but the student couldn’t say anything because she knew that if she did it would still mean failing, and the professor would keep an eye out for her next time she came to take the oral exam. You see even though after failing three times you get to take your exam in front of a panel consisting of three professors, one of those is the professor who failed you, and no one wants to step on another professor’s toes when conducting the panel oral exam, so you might as well be taking it without the panel. What this means is that you are at your professor’s whim and there is nothing you can do about it.

But that’s just one faculty. Let’s take a look at what happens at the Faculty of Philosophy. A generation of second year students had an exam that was mandatory in order to get into third year. The professor would schedule an exam, students would all come to the university at the scheduled time, some from different cities, as Sarajevo is one of the rare cities in Bosnia that has Universities. Then the professor would call, saying the exam has been postponed. He did this nine times. When the  10th time came only four students had not given up hope. All four failed. For one student the reason given was that although the professor could see she studied, he thought the student should have a period of time for the knowledge to “digest”. Afterward the students were told that the teacher was going on holiday and would be unavailable for the next month.

But none of that was technically illegal. So let us introduce the Faculty of Law. A few years back some of the female students started offering their professors sexual favors in exchange for grades. The professors naturally had enough integrity to say no and… ha ha no, they totally took them up on the offer. The whole scandal was blown wide open and those professors were imprisoned and… ha ha no, the only person even charged was the driver who arranged the meetings and drove the students. The professors involved weren’t even forbidden from working at the University. Their punishment? They could no longer work with students. So they still hold a position at the University. Oh and if they were to work with students at private universities, teach and what not, that would be OK. But what about justice I hear my readers cry, well I hope her blindness is only temporary, as there is talk of expelling the female students involved in the affair from the University. Proving once again that justice WILL use its pimping hand if necessary.

Why do these professors make it so hard to pass exams that women will turn to the oldest profession in order to get a diploma? I don’t know. Perhaps it’s because every new student that graduates is more competition in their field. Maybe it’s that the professors themselves had to go through that same horrible process and, as the statistics show, an abused child is more likely to abuse his children. Or perhaps it is to mask the numbers of our unemployment. If more people study, fewer people look for a job. My own opinion though is that making these exams so hard to pass gives them an added business opportunity, of either selling exams for good money, or sexual favors apparently.

These are just some examples from a list that could fill a budget (For example, the dean at Faculty of Pharmacy who also teaches a certain course, has a son that is a student at the same school, who is doing rather well) of such immoral and unethical behavior that it makes you wonder, is the point of our universities to make students give up on higher education?