Head of the Delegation of the European Union, Ambassador Michael Davenport and the Swiss Ambassador to Serbia, Jean-Daniel Ruch, visited the new building for higher education intended for bilingual Bujanovac Department of the Faculty of Economics from Subotica. Together with the Prime Minister of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, the Ambassadors attended the diploma award ceremony for the first generation consisting of ten graduates of this institution. The construction of the faculty building cost nearly a million Euros out of which the European Union allocated 615,000 Euros, Swiss Government 185,000 Euros while the Government of Serbia through the municipality of Bujanovac and the Coordination Body for Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja participated with 208,000 Euros for equipping the building.
The construction project for this higher education building is the result of joint efforts of numerous local and international organizations and the building was constructed in nine months according to the highest European standards. The faculty surface area is 2,300 square meters consisting, among other things, of six modern classrooms, a library and a career centre.
The curricula at the faculty will be taught in two languages, Serbian and Albanian, which is a practice that makes this faculty unique in South Serbia. There are currently almost 400 Albanians and Serbs attending the faculty. The Department offers three accredited study programmes: Finance, Banking and Insurance, Marketing and Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness.
Prime Minister Vucic said that he was proud that students would be thought in both Serbian and Albanian in that building and he told the students to learn since the most important thing is to leave the faculty with as much knowledge as possible.
Ambassador Davenport used the opportunity to remind the local authorities, the faculty management, organizations supporting the work of this institution as well as the students themselves that the building construction process had finished but the hardest part is yet to come. “It is up to you now to eradicate all prejudice through education, persistence and unity because so often they limit this region in using its incredible capacities and stand shoulder to shoulder with the rest of Europe,” added Davenport.
While addressing the students Ambassador Ruch underlined the importance of bilingual education and emphasized that only education is not enough. “You should learn but you should work too, it is important to create working habits and apply what you have learnt. That is the best possible way to contribute to development of your municipality and your country,” said Ruch.
During the visit to Bujanovac Ambassador Davenport also handed the contracts of ownership for ten pre-fabricated houses to the most vulnerable families displaced from Kosovo and Metohija out of which eight are Roma nationals. The construction of pre-fabricated houses was financed by the European Union in the amount of 185,000 Euros with financial contribution from the Housing Centre, the organisation that also implemented the whole project.
As part of his visit, Ambassador Davenport, together with the President of the Coordination Body for Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja, Zoran Stankovic, also went to the collective centre for temporary reception and accommodation of migrants in Presevo and then they visited the multi-ethnic cooperation project of two secondary schools in Bujanovac financed by the European Union and the Government of Switzerland through the European PROGRES.
