Interview with Erasmus executive in Serbia

Let's shake the people!

Erasmus Student Network is a non-profit student organization which was established n 1989 for the purpose of deepening and widening the goals of Erasmus. It has a wide network in regional, national and international level, in 30 countries, with 12,000 volunteers, offering services for 150,000 students


By FERENC KERTESZ
ISWiB 2007 Media Workshop


On one of the sunny afternoons of the festival I met a girl with blue eyes and long, brown hair, keeping it in pony-tail. Her name was Jelena Brankovic. Yes, you know her, she is one of the organizers of ISWiB and also member of Erasmus Student Network in Belgrade. I made an interview with her, talking about scholarships, hopes and difficulties.

How long have you been working for ESN?

Actually, I am the member of it since foundation, so for a few months. Erasmus Programme was established in 1987 by the European Commission. The goal of this programme is to promote cultural understanding and to get experiences in different countries. The members of Erasmus can be the Member States of the European Union and EU candidates, as well. Serbia is neither of them now, but hopefully it will be within few years. So it is worth starting to do something.

All the more so since everything is changing now. From this year Erasmus Programme, altogether with partner programmes as Socrates, Leonardo, etc. has got the name 'Lifelong Learning Programme'. The basics are the same but some pre-conditions which are relating to duties of the countries as Members, have changed. One of the glorious goals of this old-new programme to reach the 3,000,000th Erasmus student till 2012.

So, what is actually ESN for?

Erasmus Student Network is a non-profit student organization which was established n 1989 for the purpose of deepening and widening the goals of Erasmus. It has a wide network in regional, national and international level, in 30 countries, with 12,000 volunteers, offering services for 150,000 students.

Now there were three ESN offices founded, one in Belgrade, one in Macedonia and one in Bosnia. We are going to meet in this September in Ljubljana to discuss our problems and plans for the future. In February, 2008, there will be two other meetings in Belgrade and in Sarajevo.

Last year ESN did some research by surveys. These were quite popular, asking students about important questions. The last and perhaps most famous one has the name 'Exchange Students' Rights'. 12,000 answers arrived for this survey.

We are also trying to do some research to measure the present situation. We want to know some facts and tendencies about scholarships. For our survey which was sent away for all the faculties in Belgrade only 10 answers has arrived so far. But we are happy with this because still it is something. People here do not like answering to such kind of surveys. But, I think this is one of our main goals - to shake the people, the students, measure their interests, possibilities and give a chance to do something. Working to make foreign scholarships more popular.

So, do you think the main problem is lack of information and promotion?

At least one of the biggest problems is. Let's see CEEPUS Programme (www.ceepus.org) which is the program of Central European Universities/Countries to make a partnership providing scholarships for their students. In Serbia, it is coordinated by Ministry of Education. And, of course, there is a person in each university level. But faculties are quite independent here, so it is really hard to coordinate the programme, even in university level. So, it depends on a lot of things. For example, as I know, a larger number of students are always interested in CEEPUS from Faculty of Economy but from Faculty of Arts almost nobody.

Are there any other initiatives in Serbia for going abroad?

Yes, there is a successful and popular program in Novi Sad which has been working for three or four years now. It is called 'Campus Europae' (www.campuseuropae.org) and it has 18 partner universities from every part of Europe. It has a special system - it takes two semesters, in the first one students take their own courses in English and besides studying the language of the country of the host university. However, in the end of the second semester, students have their exams in that language that they have - probably successfully - learnt by then.
'Popular' program means that they have 12 outgoing and 9 incoming students in Novi Sad but it is not a little number, relating to the circumstances.

In Novi Sad there is one more thing which actually is the copy of our International Student Week in Belgrade.

What are the further difficulties which Serbian students have to face with, beside the mentioned ones?

Language, money, visa. But I think these are changeable things. Visa requirements are some kind of annoying things - you have to fill a pile of papers in the embassy before going to Schengen Area - but in my opinion it is not the biggest problem. Otherwise, there is a website, called www.getvisable.org, which providers, the European Youth Forum are 'fighting' for deleting visa requirements for young people. European Youth Forum (www.youthforum.org) which is the most important youth organization in the European Union which has weight in decision-making and opinion-forming (Council of the European Union and European Commission support them) is also for deleting/lightening visa requirements. Maybe, because of this, as well, from January 2008, there will be some visa facilitations which permits for all the most significant groups of population to go abroad in a much easier way. For example, students need only the invitation letter of the host university and passport.

Finally, have you ever been abroad?

Yes, I like travelling. I prefer Germany and the Netherlands. But I have been abroad so far not as a student, but as a tourist.