15 June 2020
By Goda Skiotytė
Last Monday we
virtually left Pristina and travelled north – to the divided
city of Mitrovica. The morning started early with all of us fresh and rested
after the weekend. Starting with this day, we are visiting the organizations
based in Mitrovica, most of which represent the Kosovo Serbian
population and work on community building there. First, we met with
officers from various UN agencies, working on a wide variety of projects, ranging
from work with newborn babies and their families, to engaging and teaching
women about their health in cooperation with Serbian Orthodox Church. The
meeting was extremely inspiring, the effort and passion of these UN agents can and
really do have an impact on the communities there. After that we met with an
official from
University of Pristina in Mitrovica and then the administration and student
representatives from the International Business College Mitrovica. These two
meetings and students’ life there is what I want to tell you more about in this
post.
To start, the first meeting was with International (Public) Relations officer Mr Miloš Subotić from
University of Pristina that is not in Pristina – University of Pristina
temporarily settled in Kosovska Mitrovica, this is the full official name. It
is a consequence of the university division that happened during the war and
was officially set in place in 2001 after a governmental resolution by the
Republic of Serbia. As a result, this university is now funded by the Serbian
government, taught in Serbian (the only higher education institution providing
education in Serbian within Kosovo) and is regarded as the heart of
the Serbian community.
The students come here from all over Kosovo and neighbouring
countries to study and immerse themselves in the community. Of course, all of
this happens in the Northern part of Mitrovica. Not to bother you with too many
facts or the history of this educational institution, but the meeting was insightful,
with Mr Miloš being open in discussing the university life, students’
opportunities and even social issues, such as racism in Kosovo. According to
him, it does not exist in Kosovo and the students do not really pay much attention
to the current events regarding the Black Lives Matter Movement. But he stressed this was his
opinion, and asking students or members of the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities might yield different answers and
perspectives.
In the afternoon, we met with Mirjana
Krsmanovic, the Head of Administration, and a few students from the
International Business College – Mitrovica. IBC-M is an independent higher
education institution founded by the Dutch non-governmental organization SPARK
in March 2010 and now is registered as an independent not-for-profit
educational foundation in Kosovo, funded by the European Union. In contrast with University of Pristina in
Mitrovica, IBC-M is a unique place where students from various ethnic
backgrounds study together. With IBC-M having campuses in both Northern and
Southern Mitrovica, it aims to connect the communities and provide a
European-style learning environment. Students from IBC-M also get access to
work and exchange opportunities in various countries all around Europe, despite
the overall struggle in Kosovo with visa liberalization process.
Both of these meetings and conversation
with the students from IBC-M made me think about how, despite the fact that we
are all students in universities, we experience that so-called best time of our
lives so differently. The city of Mitrovica is known to be bustling and
hustling due to a high number of students. However, such small details, as for
example, being cautious at which bar or café you go to or having to wait for
months for a visa to go for exchange in Portugal or Denmark but still getting
it declined, seem unbelievable to us, students in Amsterdam. But in Mitrovica,
it is the reality. The ethnic tensions are still high. Some students at the University
of Pristina in Mitrovica are closed to Kosovo Albanians. And even though, the
IBC-M students come from both backgrounds, some are wary of engaging with each
other. Studying in AUC, where students pride themselves in excellence and diversity, this
feels out of this world. And it literally is.
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