Students who didn’t pass their entrance exams for the University of Sarajevo were enrolled anyway because “their parents knew someone” or they paid off the right person: “With money you can do anything.”
During a private meeting with a professor, a student was told he definitely would pass an important exam if he bought the professor’s book for 40. “I think everyone at the university knows about this practice. Whoever I talked to, almost everyone said they bought it.”
A man who applied for a faculty position was passed over for an applicant who had lower grades. “My agony is still going on because I took everything to court. It’s been going on for a long time and it’s exhausting. My colleagues and I are not the only ones, but it would be good if we were the last.”
These are three of the more than 50 complaints sent by students and staffers to the Center for the Development of Youth Activism (CROA). CROA is taking an old-school approach to ensure these are the last victims of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s corruption-plagued university system.
Students, faculty – anyone, for that matter – can drop their concerns and complaints in plain boxes that CROA maintains at the University of Sarajevo and the University of East Sarajevo. Several years into their campaign – “Knowledge IN, Corruption OUT” – CROA is so well known that the group doesn’t even need to put its logo on the boxes.
“Students use the boxes, but the boxes are also a reminder. They know what it’s for,” said Alma...
Unfortunately, Gregg Phillips’ claims that he was twice teleported from one place to another aren’t the biggest problems for this top government official with a long history of shady deals, charit...
