University Cooperation in the Field of Gender Equality

The ceremony of signing the Memorandum of Cooperation between 17 universities and the Transcultural Psychosocial Educational Foundation TPO within the project "UNIVERSITY AND GENDER MAINSTREAMING" was held on 6 October 2021 in Sarajevo.

In addition to the University of Banja Luka, on whose behalf the Memorandum was signed by the Vice Rector for Human and Material Resources Prof. Dalibor Kesić, PhD, the list of partners includes 16 more universities from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro.

The project is funded by the British Embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and it is a project that will address issues of gender equality in higher education processes. The signatories of the Memorandum will, through regular exchange of information and joint activities, pay special attention, among other things, to the preparation of strategic documents aimed at preventing gender-based violence, discrimination and sexual harassment at universities. The plan is to take part in research, which is dedicated to measuring attitudes about existence and information about regulations aimed at preventing and combating gender-based violence, discrimination and sexual harassment.

At the memorandum signing ceremony, the British Ambassador to BiH, Matthew Field, emphasized the importance of the readiness of universities to work on the integration of gender equality into the higher education system so that the academic and wider community would be a safe place for professors and students.

Director of the TPO Foundation Zilka Spahić Šiljak emphasizes the importance of establishing mechanisms for the prevention of gender-based violence and the promotion of gender equality at universities, which, as she says, should result in a change in general and organizational culture in the academic community.