"Turkish University to be Among Best in Bosnia and Herzegovina"
The rector of International Burch University (IBU), a Turkish university founded in Bosnia and Herzegovina, has said the goal of IBU is to become one of the top three universities in the country, noting that even though it has only been a short time since the university was founded, it has garnered the attention of local and foreign students.
"I am hopeful for the future of the university. I can say that IBU will be among the top three universities in a short period of time," said the rector of IBU, Hüseyin Padem, speaking to Today's Zaman.
IBU, which was founded in 2008 in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo, currently has four faculties — education, economics, engineering and genetics and bioengineering — and nearly 400 students. Padem stated that they are working on opening genetics and bioengineering research facilities.
There are 22 private and eight state-sponsored universities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, resulting in increasing competition in the education market, so universities are scrambling to attract students' attention. Founded just one year ago, IBU has been quite successful so far. The university rector expressed his belief that in the near future IBU will be a popular European university. "We hosted an international symposium with 300 academicians on sustainable development and published three books on how to strengthen sustainable development in the areas of science and technology, education and the economy. It is an unexpected achievement for a newly established university. We will continue to organize these kinds of events in upcoming years."
The projected genetics and bioengineering facilities of the university, including a gigantic laboratory for which the university has spent 2 million euros, will be the first laboratory of its kind, and the faculty is the first to offer Bosnian students genetics and bioengineering courses, the rector underlined.
Explaining his future plans concerning the improvement of the university, rector Padem underlined that the international symposium which was held will help the university gain an international reputation, adding that they are working on organizing a large conference on creating new ways to boost Bosnian agriculture in 2010.
"The language of instruction is English in all departments except the Turkish language and literature department. And we offer every student who does not know English and who finds his English knowledge inadequate a year of intensive English courses," stated Padem, emphasizing that students coming from Turkey are offered Bosnian language courses for one academic year, whereas students from other nationalities take the required Turkish language courses. "Our goal is to teach three languages: Bosnian, Turkish and English," noted Padem. He also stated that the language capabilities of IBU's students have attracted the attention of investors and businessmen who attended the Turkish Export Fair in November, and thus many IBU students have had the opportunity to get an internship with these companies.
"The first priority of our university is to have well-educated graduates. We insist on fulfilling the criteria set by the EU under the Bologna process. It's a guide that will help us have a successful academic program," said Padem, explaining that the teaching staff of IBU is not allowed to lecture more than 12 hours in a week and that classes have a maximum number of 30 students, two of the criteria stated in the Bologna process. After fully integrating the EU conditions, IBU graduates will have the chance to get jobs across Europe. He also noted that they have applied to the Higher Education Board (YÖK) to grant accreditation to IBU and expressed his belief that they will obtain YÖK accreditation by next year.
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