The Kick-off Conference of the EU funded project “Reform of Higher Education Financing in Bosnia and Herzegovina took place on 8 May 2012 in Sarajevo.

The European Union funds this 24-month project from the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA 2009) in the amount of 1.473.500 EUR. The project is implemented by a consortium lead by Hulla & Co Human Dynamics in partnership with ABU Consult Berlin GmbH (DE), International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP-UNESCO (FR), German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and Hydro Engineering Institute Sarajevo (BiH).

The overall objective of the project is to support BiH ministries and universities to improve systems of Higher Education financing to bring them more in line with current practices in the European Higher Education Area in preparation for EU accession. The central focus of project activity, relating to both government and universities stakeholders, is to identify what are the incentives for each to change the present higher education financing arrangements, and then to support implementation of improved financing criteria and processes, along with an assessment of the financing implications of these over the medium-term future.