Election in North Mitrovica

For the last few weeks North Mitrovica has been in the midst of a campaign surrounding local elections organised by the Serbian government.  All the activity culminated with voting held on Sunday 30th May, with polling stations open to 20.00 CET.

The election has been branded "illegal" by Mr. Avdi Kastrati, President of the municipality of Mitrovica and Mr Pieter Feith, EU special representative for Kosovo, has said that the outcome will not be recognised by the Union.

Pieter Feith - European Union Special Representative

Source: FotoNet Archive

Despite the controversy surrounding the elections emanating from Prishtina, there are thirteen lists of candidates on the ballot paper and campaigning has been vigorous.  The NATO peacekeeping mission, KFOR, has offered protection to all peaceful protesters and has said that it will take "all necessary measures" against all violent actions.

Participants in the inaugural conference of the Forum for Cities in Transition, held between 24th and 28th of May in Mitrovica, found themselves having to make an unexpected detour around a noisy campaign meeting, where police held an armed man, as they made their way from one event to another on Tuesday evening.  At the International Business College Mitrovica we have kept to our timetable and have kept up teaching thoughout the campaign period.

Election campaign posters in north Mitrovica

Source: ©Paul Sudnik - 28h May 2010

Recruitment Publicity Campaign

As the battle to recruit students for October 2010 hots up among the various providers of higher education, so May becomes the month when they come out onto the streets (the providers, not the students!).

At the International Business College Mitrovica, we have planned a campaign that includes TV and radio advertisements, open days (to be held on 29th May as well as the11th and 12th June) and a series of visits to schools where we have made presentations about the programmes we have on offer.

 

International Business College Mitrovica billboard in Prishtina

Source: ©Paul Sudnik - 17h May 2010

As can be seen from this billboard, our campaign is visible and I am pleased to say seems to be having some impact.  We have noticed an increase in interest and registrations since the campaign got to full speed and there is still more to come!

SPACE man visits the International Business College Mitrovica

The International Business College Mitrovica has become an Associate Member of the SPACE network of more than 90 tertiary institutions which are active in the fields of business and language education.  The organisation spans both "old" and "new" Europe and gives the International Business College Mitrovica a window on the world that provides access to a broad and deep pool of experts in the fields of both business and professional education.

We were very pleased to host Dr. Piotr Marek Jaworski in Mitrovica last week.  Dr Jaworski is pictured below with the IBCM management group at our weekly management meeting.

Dr Piotr Marek Jaworski (back row - far right) pictured with the management group of the International Business College Mitrovica 

Source: ©Paul Sudnik - 21st May 2010

Piotr is a lecturer at The Business School of Edinburgh Napier University and has been lecturing in Britain since 2003: first at UCL and then at Birkback College.  Before, he worked in Poland at the Warsaw School of Economics and at the Ministry of Finance where he served as an adviser to the Minister involved in the negotiations on Polish accession to the European Union.

During his stay with us, Piotr was able to give two lectures to our students, who impressed him with their questions, and to "sit in" on a lecture in European Studies, which gave him another opportunity to interact with our students and to contribute to discussion from a perspective beyond Mitrovica.

More from Denmark

It was certainly a strange sensation to walk into the senior common room at the Lillebaelt Academy of Professional Higher Education in Odense last week and find a whole notice board dedicated to our partnership!  Photographs, articles, maps - in fact everything you would need to know to be fully briefed on cooperation with the International Business College Mitrovica.

It was pleasing to see that the project is causing so much interest among Lillebaelt staff in Denmark - so pleasing in fact that I could not resist taking a photo of Regitze, from the Academy, and Nina, from the IBCM, in front of pictures that are every day sights for us in Mitrovica!

Regitze and Nina at the SCR noticeboard of Lillebaelt Academy of Professional Higher Education

Source: ©Paul Sudnik - 10th May 2010

 

Thank you Regitze, Rasmus and everyone else who was involved in our very successful visit to Odense last week.  See you in Week 23 when you are back in Mitrovica to teach!!

Timetabling in Denmark

Once again events have made me fall behind plan in terms of posting!  This week I have been in Denmark visiting our partner institution in Odense.

In recent months in Mitrovica we have been focused on fine tuning the academic content of the programmes that we are teaching at the International Business College Mitrovica - but as we begin to think about the intake for October 2010 so it has become imperative for us to consider administrative systems.  It was with this in mind that we visited our colleagues at the Lillebaelt Academy of Professional Higher Education.

We spent a significant part of our time reviewing the timetabling methodology that is used in Denmark.  They too have a puzzling timetabling algorithm to resolve every semester because of the complexity of their teaching timetable.  When you consider that at the IBCM we run two buildings and have a staff from both north and south of Mitrovica (some of whom are part-time employees) then the parameters of our own timetabling problem become clear!

It was also good to talk about day to day administrative matters with those involved in the project at the Danish end - all in all we had an intensive and productive visit and it was good to take the opportunity to relax whenever it presented itself - as the below picture shows!

Nina and Rasmus enjoy lunch in the student canteen of the Lillebaelt Academy of Professional Higher Education

Source: ©Paul Sudnik - 10th May 2010

Public recognition for the IBCM

On the wall of my office there now hangs, in pride of place, a certificate awarded to the International Business College Mitrovica for the best customer service at the recent education fair in Prishtina (see my post of 10th April).

Everyone worked very hard to make the fair a success but I think that our team went above and beyond the call of duty - as the judges recognied.  It was noticeable that everyone who worked on the stand was highly motivated and, most importantly, that they smiled a lot and were not shy when talking to visitors.  Working on a stand at a fair is tough work but it is worth it when it is recognised by such a prestigious award such as this!

Arbenita, Valon and Ardita admire the framed certificate earned by their effort!

Source: ©Paul Sudnik - 4th May 2010

Missing from the photo is Ivica who was already visiting some more schools in the region, where he was meeting and informing more potential students about the International Business College Mitrovica!

Thanks to you all and well done!

Recruiting a pilot cohort

Much of what I have written about in recent weeks has been about the current recruitment drive to attract students to the IBCM for the new academic year starting in October 2010.  However, from a historical perspective, we have already had a very busy time recruiting at the beginning of this year because we had made the decision to start with a pilot cohort in the spring semester of 2010.

It was important for us to begin teaching at the International Business College Mitrovica as soon as possible because I am convinced that the best argument supporting the choice of a college for new students is for them to see a functioning institution where they can meet contemporaries who are already benefiting from what is being offered.  As a result of this decision to start teaching early, there was a major push to put the IBCM on the map of student perception during January to March - not a traditional time for starting undergraduate studies!

However, with a lot of work from the whole team (as usual - thanks to them all!) we succeeded in putting together a high profile and very effective publicity campaign that revolved around the following activities:

1. Providing English lessons, given by native speaker teachers, to potential students
2. Meetings with student groups and their parents arranged by NGOs in the field
3. Publicity on local radio in Albanian, English, Serbian and Turkish
4. An intensive campaign on Kosovo television - the clip is shown below

As a result of some very energetic campaigning, which generated over 4000 registrations for places at the International Business College Mitrovica, we were able to invite candidates to an entrance examination in mid February and then to fill the places on our pilot cohort from 1st March 2010!

So as we approach another round of admissions, our second in 2010, it does feel as if we have gathered a lot of valuable experience in the recruitment of students to start up tertiary institutions!