Declaration on cooperation with the University of Poitiers signed

The delegation of the University of Poitiers, comprised of Prof. Sanja Bošković-Danojlić, Head of Department of Slavic and Oriental Languages,  Prof. Freiderikos Valetopoulos, Head of Department of French as a Foreign Language and Manager of Master Studies at this Department, and Ms Christine Robichon, Director of the Department of International Relations at the University of Poitiers, visited our University in the period of November 2-5 2016.

In addition to several working meetings with the management of the Faculty of Philology and teaching staff of its respective Department of French Language and Literature, the visit of the guests from France was an opportunity for the two Universities to sign the Declaration on cooperation with the aim to improve the quality of education and scientific research, as well as exchanging students and teaching staff.

The signing of the Declaration was organised on November 4 2016 at the Rectorate of our University, with the ceremony, apart from the abovementioned representatives of the University in Poitiers, the Rector of the University of Banja Luka, Prof. Milan Mataruga, the Vice-Rector for International Cooperation, Prof. Biljana Antunović, Dean of the  Faculty of Philology, Prof. Mladenko Sadžak, and teaching staff of the Department of French Language and Literature, being also attended by the representatives of the University of Istočno Sarajevo, who, on that occasion, also signed the said Declaration.

The signing of the Declaration represents the continuation of the previously established cooperation  between the University of Banja Luka and University of Poitiers, which started in 2011, and which was especially important for the Erasmus+ programme of mobility for both students and teaching staff, as well as for activities whose aim is creating joint study programmes. Thanks to this cooperation, the students and teaching staff from the University of Banja Luka have already had an opportunity to spend time at the University of Poitiers.

At the moment, there are five students from our University and two students from the University of Istočno Sarajevo studying at the University in Poitiers, and the guests from this partner University pointed out that they had achieved excellent results.

It is the possibility of establishing double degrees for students of the two universities that was one of the topics of the meetings held at the Rectorate, Faculty of Philology and at the Ministry of Education and Culture respectively during the visit of the French delegation.

Another topic concerned creating new joint first cycle multidisciplinary studies that would enable students to be competent in multiple fields and provide them with more possibilities when looking for a job. Other topics of the meeting were joint organisation of doctoral studies and a centre for scientific research, as well as a multi-language journal.