Federal Ministry of Culture and Sports signed today the Agreement on Cooperation in the Field of Architecture, Urbanism, Spatial Planning and Monument Protection with the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Sarajevo.

On behalf of the Ministry, the Agreement was signed by the Federal Minister of Culture and Sports, Sanja Vlaisavljević and Robert Stergar, Director of the Institute for the Protection of Monuments that will be in charge with organisation and execution of the contracted activities on behalf of the Ministry. The Dean Erdin Salihović signed the Agreement on behalf of the Faculty of Architecture in Sarajevo.

Minister Vlaisavljević did not hide satisfaction with the future cooperation between the Ministry and the Faculty of Architecture: “I would dare to say that this is a historical issue, given that it is the very first time that the Federal Ministry of Culture and Sports and our Institute enter into an agreement of this type with a faculty. I am particularly pleased to greet the respected dean Salihović, who recognised the significance of this cooperation. It’s about motivating and awakening students in a sense that includes practice, field work and live learning of their future profession. Therefore, the emphasis of the Agreement is precisely on organisation of students’ and professional workshops, practical teaching with students, and taking students out of classrooms. It often happens that students finish their studies with highest grades, but their success on the job market is hindered because they did not have any practical work during studies. This is an opportunity to change that,” Minister Vlaisavljević said.

Dean Erdin Salihović believes that the Agreement can have good results: “This Agreement is a good step to bridge the gap between academic and professional life and I believe that we will achieve good results with this cooperation. What follows is the establishment of an elective course at the Faculty of Architecture that will deal with the protection of architectural heritage within the respective Department. I believe that the results will be very good considering that the students will go out into the field, work directly on the analysis and measurement of urban areas, protected and individual buildings, and I believe that the results will be visible. We have always had outstanding cooperation with the public and real sector, but this is the first institution from the federal level with which we are now starting cooperation that will be very good, I’m sure”.

The Director of the Institute for the Protection of Monuments, Robert Stergar, is extremely happy about the start of cooperation with the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Sarajevo: “I am unusually happy that this is happening.” The Institute for the Protection of Monuments has a 78-year tradition in the protection, study and promotion of the heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina. I hope that through the workshops, the elective course and the communication between professors and students from the Faculty and us who have decades of experience in working with cultural heritage, we will contribute and give young people the opportunity to look at things in a different way, and maybe one of them will fall in love with the profession of monuments protection and protection of heritage in general and continue what we have done so far”.

The cooperation between the Federal Ministry of Culture and Sports and the Faculty of Architecture will include: organisation of students’ and professional workshops, practical classes with students in the field and in the office, enabling student practice, mutual exchange of knowledge and experience, provision of spatial planning and other documentation, creation of project documentation, study and scientific-research tasks in the field of architecture and urbanism, protection of monuments and historical heritage, environmental protection, and consulting work in the domain of architecture, urbanism and spatial planning, protection of monuments, but also debates, lectures, seminars, inter-institutional visits, exhibitions and publications results of cooperation.

In the upcoming period, the Federal Ministry of Culture and Sports will sign a cooperation agreement with the Department of Archaeology of the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Mostar, and in this way the Ministry and the Institute for the Protection of Monuments will connect the two faculties, two universities, professors, students, and experts in the mentioned areas.