Case studies
Higher Education in Conflict Zones
Industry: Education (HEIs)
Organization: International Business College Mitrovica (North Kosovo)
Period covered: 2013 - 2015
Published: 2016
Organization: SPARK International (NL)
URL: www.ibcmitrovica.eu
Background
The mission of IBC-M is to build bridges in the ethnically divided city of Mitrovica by studying and teaching together - with two campuses, one in each community.
IBC-M is an independent higher education institution founded by the Dutch non-governmental organization SPARK in March 2010. It was established with donations from Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Swiss Development Cooperation, the UK Government Department for International Development, the European Commission and the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology of Kosovo.
The college operates campuses on each side of the ethnically divided (Kosovo-Albanian and Serbian communities) town of Mitrovica. Until today, Mitrovica is the epicenter of tensions between both communities.
IBC-M was first registered in the Netherlands and in Kosovo, but in March 2018 it was registered as an independent not-for-profit educational foundation in Kosovo, under the umbrella of the Ministry of Public Administration and licensed by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology of Kosovo. Its current donor is European Union. Its status as not-for-profit educational foundation has allowed IBC-M to operate as an independent International Business School under the Kosovo Higher Education Law.
IBC-M is accredited by both German Accreditation Agency Evalag (Evaluationsagentur Baden-Württemberg) and the Kosovo Accreditation Agency (KAA). The college offers bachelor as well as master degrees.
IBC-M operates in cooperation with the University College Lillebaelt from Denmark and University of Applied Science VIKO from Lithuania to award students with double diplomas and degrees.
On a personal note, for me it was a journey back to the conflict in the former Yugoslavia after almost 20 years. In 1995, as deputy chairman of the Young Liberals in Saxony (Germany), I was project lead for a humanitarian aid transport for an orphanage in Sarajevo – from fundraising to implementation. The journey through the Serbian siege surrounding the besieged city of Sarajevo was a formative experience.
Challenge
My duty at IBC-M was head of college (Rector, Direktor). When I took over this responsibility in 2013, the college had just completed it's first development phase since inception: Establishing the college within both communities and setting up college curricula and body. This first phase also included the preliminary German accreditation by Evalag (German accreditation agency).
At the same time, by 2013 the college was challenged by incoherent product and pricing policy, leading to student protests and to damages for the reputation and positioning of the organization - in addition to the overall tension in the city and region. Also, it became obvious that the ambitious financial sustainability model of the college was hard to achieve.
Solution
Together with the IBC-M team, during my term from 2013 to 2015, we achieved the following:
- Regaining trust: Substantially improved positioning and reputation within the communities;
- Fostering market orientation among college staff (both management and academic);
- Re-structuring pricing policy; cost reduction;
- Stabilizing operations and management, and focusing the sustainablity strategy;
- Full Evalag accreditation, after initial preliminary accrediation;
- Initiating and establishing business services and business network events, linking the college to the business communities in Kosovo, Northern Kosovo as well as Serbia;
- Initiating international collaborations and networks in Academia.
Mitrovica Innovations
Event