Swiss Ambassador at UP: Expansion of Academic Cooperation and Promotion of Swiss Scholarships

In a meeting with the Swiss Ambassador, His Excellency Jürg Sprecher, at the University of Prishtina (UP), discussions focused on the Balkanistics Programme at the Faculty of Philology and opportunities for professor and student exchange.

Ambassador Sprecher noted that a number of Kosovar students are studying in Switzerland through that country's excellence scholarship, expressing the desire for their numbers to increase in the future. For this purpose, it was agreed that this Swiss scholarship would be promoted across the UP campus and through the university's communication channels.

The distinguished guest also offered his assistance to facilitate the arrival of visiting professors and researchers from Switzerland to UP.

The meeting also covered the Faculty of Philology's Balkanistics Programme, which has been consistently supported by the Swiss state through the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The Ambassador was informed by UP's leadership about the Senate's approval to open the competition for two professors in this programme and its submission for accreditation.

The Ambassador was requested to leverage his authority and that of the state he represents to assist in the full integration of all educational institutions into the Kosovar education system. This aim is to overcome the divisive legacy of the past and to build a genuinely multi-ethnic society.

The Rector of the University of Prishtina, Prof. Dr. Arben Hajrullahu, and the Vice-Rector for Internationalization and Academic Exchange, Prof. Dr. Rozafa Basha, thanked Ambassador Jürg Sprecher for his visit and expressed their desire and commitment to intensifying cooperation in the future.