Rector Gajanin Talked with Mayor Radojičić

On 6 August 2020, Rector of the University of Banja Luka Prof. Radoslav Gajanin, PhD, and Mayor of the City of Banja Luka Igor Radojičič talked about the cooperation in the forthcoming period.

As stated by the Rector during the meeting at the Rectorate, the University and the City have good cooperation, and according to him, from autumn, the 21 best students are expected to start a traineeship in the City Administration and companies managed by the City. 

,,This is the third year in a row in which students of the University of Banja Luka gain practical skills in the City Administration and in different companies’’, Gajanin says and adds that most of them are students of the Faculty of Law, Faculty of Economics, Faculty of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Faculty of Philosophy and Faculty of Technology.

It was pointed out at the meeting that the City of Banja Luka will also support the carrying out of the construction of the future preschool educational centre - the building of a kindergarten, in the University Campus. As stated, after the completion of the construction, this educational centre would be in the system of the city Centre for Preschool Education. Accordingly, Rector Gajanin said that the goal was to have the construction of this building completed by the end of the following year, and that the Government of the Republic of Srpska provided financial support for the implementation of this capital project.

Mayor Radojičić says that experts from the University have been engaged for the projects implemented by the City of Banja Luka.

As for the current epidemiological situation, Radojičić says that the City has prepared a series of preventive measures so that all institutions can get ready to cope with the current epidemiological situation, given that the beginning of the school and academic year will be challenging for everyone due to the increased contacts.

Radojičić emphasized that the City has already prepared the opening of a new Covid clinic in the Dolac settlement, and as part of the preparations for the school year, the opening of a special clinic for school-age children is being considered.

He said that the city administration expects instructions from the relevant RS institutions on what the beginning of the school year will look like at all levels of education and in what form the classes will be organised.

As for the beginning of the new academic year, Rector Gajanin stated that classes for the first-year students in the academic year 2020-21 would begin on 5 October at the University of Banja Luka, and for the other students on 2 November, adding that all epidemiological recommendations regarding the protection against the spread of coronavirus will be adhered to.

He emphasized that in this higher education institution they assume that the epidemiological situation will be unfavourable on 1 October and 1 November, and that the higher education institutions are preparing for that.

,,We will fully comply with the epidemiological recommendations and we will work together with the relevant ministry on the preparation of instructions for teaching in this complex epidemiological situation. Should the epidemiological situation be unfavourable, practical classes will certainly have to take place at the University and faculties in small groups, while complying with all epidemiological recommendations”, the rector of the University of Banja Luka announced.

With respect to theoretical classes, Gajanin said that for study groups where epidemiological recommendations cannot be implemented, distance learning will most likely be the option, provided that it is conducted from the classrooms.

,,The teacher will have the obligation to come to the classroom and give a lecture. An appropriate number of students will probably be able to be physically present according to epidemiological recommendations, and others will follow such classes electronically, through appropriate platforms’’, the rector said. 

The event was also attended by the Vice-Rector for Material and Human Resources of the University of Banja Luka Prof. Dalibor Kesić, PhD, Head of the Mayor’s Cabinet Milan Grubor, Prof. Ljubiša Preradović, PhD, and Prof. Assist. Miroslav Malinović, PhD, from the Faculty of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy at the University of Banja Luka.