Taking place on Wednesday, 11 October 2023, at the South East European Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (SEECEL), the executive director of the Bavarian Academic Center for Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe, Nikolas Djukic, delivered a presentation to representatives from academia.
During his talk, Nikolas Djukic presented the higher education system of Bavaria, the second largest German state in terms of population and GDP level, and familiarized the attendees with the activities conducted at BAYHOST. As the coordinating body for all Bavarian universities, the Center manages academic relations with universities and higher education institutions in Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe, as well as promotes academic exchange of students and researchers. BAYHOST aims to foster and reinforce cooperation with current partner universities and works on establishing new contacts with prospective partners. As part of his presentation, Nikolas Djukic spoke about the existing cooperation between Bavarian and Croatian universities, scholarship programmes for students and junior researchers, the possibilities of joint organization of conferences and workshops, as well as the Bavarian Funding Program for the Initiation of International Projects – BayIntAn.
Pointing out the fact that foreign students comprise about 18 percent of the total student population at Bavarian universities, Mr Djukic said that students currently have the opportunity to study Croatian at three Bavarian universities (Regensburg, Bamberg, and Munich), with centre for Croatian language and culture CROATICUM having been recently opened at the University of Regensburg. Notably, it marks the first Croaticum established in a German-speaking country. In addition to this, there are 40 existing cooperation agreements signed between Bavarian and Croatian higher education institutions.
During the meeting, the participants exchanged information on potential new ways of cooperation, primarily regarding the organization of interdisciplinary and international summer schools, stronger networking aimed at the development of scientific and research projects and strengthening academic mobility.
The multi-day working visit made by BAYHOST executive director Nikolas Djukic was organized by the Central International Relations Office of the University of Zagreb. Following his talk at SEECEL, the executive director of BAYHOST will hold presentations at the UNIZG constituent units and meet with faculty and academy representatives.
