Address: Franje Račkog br. 1,
71000 Sarajevo
Bosna i HercegovinaTel/Fax: + 387 33 253 290
Email: adila@wcces2007.ba
lara@wcces2007.ba
Web: www.ff.unsa.baFACULTY OF PHILOSOPHY OF SARAJEVO UNIVERISTY
The Faculty of Philosophy of Sarajevo University was founded in 1950, and it represents one of the oldest members of the University of Sarajevo. The development of this scientific and teacher’s training institution was very dynamic and it was responsive not only to the society’s needs but also to numerous needs of science and research aiming at meeting a lot of societal issues and problems. In addition to its major orientation towards educational activities, since its very foundation and up to day, the Faculty of Philosophy has been a place for intensive scientific and research work, including all other activities related to the development and promotion of Philosophy, History, Pedagogy, Psychology, Philology, Linguistics, Literature and Library Science, as well as Applied Linguistics, History of Arts, Methodology of Teaching, and other fields and related researches.
Other activities at the Faculty of Philosophy include: professional education and training; teacher’s training programs; verification of degrees and diplomas; organization of exams in mother tongue and foreign languages; organization of exams for part-time students; translation, editing and publication.
Since its establishment 44,674 students have enrolled at the Faculty of Philosophy; 12,126 students graduated in undergraduate studies; 357 students earned their Master’s degree and 278 students earned their Doctorate’s degree.
At present, there are 3,156 students enrolled in undergraduate studies, and 279 students enrolled in postgraduate studies, and in one of the following departments:
- Philosophy and Sociology;
- Psychology;
- Education;
- History;
- History of Arts;
- Bosnian/Croatian/ Serbian Language and Literature;
- Comparative Literature and Library Science;
- Russian Language and Literature;
- English Language and Literature;
- German Language and Literature;
- French Language and Literature;
- French Language and Literature/major, Latin Language and Literature of Rome/minor;
- French Language and Literature/major, Italian Language and Literature/minor;
- Arabic Language and Literature, Turkish Language and Literature;
- Arabic Language and Literature, Persian Language and Literature;
- Turkish Language and Literature and Persian Language and Literature;
- Turkish Language and Literature, Arabic Language and Literature.There are 187 faculty members currently employed at the Faculty, including professors, teaching assistants and lecturers, and around 24 associates.
According to the curriculum implemented before the Bologna Declaration, the educational training consisted of 8 semesters, and a student would earn his/her degree after successful completion of all exams planned by the syllabuses and after successful defense of his/her diploma paper.
In accordance with the new curriculum attuned to the Bologna Declaration and European Credit Transfer System (ECTS), which enables greater mobility of students during their course of study and recognition of diplomas, a first generation of students were enrolled in 2005/2006 school year.To get a Bachelor Degree a student is required to successfully complete 6 semesters, i.e. three years of studies, and achieve 180 ECTS credits (60 credits for one year, i.e. 30 credits in each semester), and to get a Master’s Degree one has to go for two more years of studies and earn additional 120 ECTS credits.
The reformed course of study, attuned to the Bologna process, consists of two cycles, which will direct the best students towards earning their Doctorate’s degrees in three-year programs organized around intensive scientific research and with the support and leadership of the assigned mentor.
With these reformed changes at the Faculty of Philosophy, an attempt has been made to follow the standards and norms which will enable young people to get valid diplomas equally recognized in other European countries.
During its decades-long existence, the Faculty of Philosophy has passed through different stages and periods. A lot of those phases were progressive; others yet stagnating; and some even tragically devastating. A period from 1992 to 1996 was extremely difficult for the Faculty of Philosophy, due to brutality of the war, during which the building and the equipment at the Faculty were destroyed, a number of teachers and students were killed, and some teachers and students left the Faculty and this country for good.
It is important to emphasize that all departments worked, and classes were not stopped during the war, not even for a single day. After the war, the Faculty used all its potentials to rebuild and to reform the programs, and the XIII World Congress of Comparative Education Societies is only one of the activities undertaken after the war.
The professors from the Faculty of Philosophy are often invited by the European, American and some Arabic Universities to be guest lecturers in their schools, and the Faculty also hosts a lot of foreign lecturers and professors who come on behalf of many world Universities. There are 10 professors at this Faculty who were on a Fulbright scholarship in the U.S.A.
The University of Sarajevo
The University of Sarajevo descends from a century long tradition of higher education in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Sarajevo. The institutional beginnings of higher education are identical to the university tradition of Western Europe. In 1531 Gazi Husrev-beg established the Hanikah, a higher school of Souphey philosophy to which an institution for the study of Islamic Sciences was added in 1537. Here the three disciplines of Classical Catholic Universities were nurtured: theology, law and philosophy and the university also comprised a library. By the end of the 19th century, this institution was the largest institution of learning in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
University of Sarajevo is a large educational system taking into account number of employees (1.640 teachers and assistants and 893 non academic staff) as well as number of students (total 47000). According to current organizational structure it is loose association with many higher education institutions with strong legal identity (23 faculties and academies and other members of the University and associated members). Since the premise of members and associated members are dislocated around the city, higher priority is given to the building of the University Campus. For those members of the University, appropriate building and traffic work are required, in order to group them in four or five polycentric units.
Despite all the difficulties of life and work during the three-and-a-half-year-long siege of Sarajevo and thanks to the enthusiasm, professional attitude, patriotism and perseverance of university teachers and associates as well as the students, the University of Sarajevo managed to retain its continuity of work and life. This was a specific aspect of intellectual, academic resistance towards everything that is barbaric and against civilisation, the University's contribution to the affirmation of freedom and democracy, the defence against aggression and fascism and the affirmation of the statehood of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
At the beginning of 1996, the University of Sarajevo entered the phase of post-war physical and academic renewal and reconstruction. The physical renewal is aimed at the reconstruction of devastated and the rebuilding of destroyed facilities (through the realisation of the New University Campus Project), the replacement of destroyed educational and scientific equipment and the reconstruction of student dormitories. Significant results have been achieved on this plane and the conditions for higher quality studies have been formed.
The undergoing academic renewal comprises the realisation of a new concept of organisation and function of the University in accordance with contemporary standards, the modernisation of curricula and the education of the necessary teaching personnel.For more information: www.unsa.ba
