The Faculty of Political Sciences, one of 24 bodies of the University of Sarajevo, was founded in 1961. Its half-century in academic education makes it one of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s oldest public academic research institutions in the field of the social sciences. The Faculty has five teaching departments: Political Studies, Sociology, Communication and Journalism Studies, Security and Peace Studies, and Social Work.
The Faculty has four organizational units devoted to teaching, academic research, publications, and professional and administrative affairs. More than one hundred academics (teaching and ancillary staff) are involved in the Faculty’s teaching programme, which now includes more than 130 undergraduate and graduate-level syllabi. The bachelor’s degree courses last three years (180 ECTS) and the master’s degree courses last two years (120 ECTS). The Faculty now also offers third degree-level doctoral studies, lasting three years (180 ECTS).
The Faculty staff currently consists of 21 full professors, 11 associate professors, 13 senior lecturers, 19 senior assistant lecturers and 11 assistant lecturers, in addition to a concomitant number of professionally-trained administrative and technical staff devoted to teaching matters and student affairs, library and academic documentation, finance and accounting, and general and legal affairs.
Five years ago, in line with the reforms being introduced at the University of Sarajevo guided by the spirit and ideas of the Bologna Declaration and other key documents relating to the European academic world, the Faculty of Political Sciences carried out a radical, innovative reconstruction of the curricula, designed to respond to the challenges of our time. The Faculty has a diverse student body of about 3,500 students of all types and years of study, including full-time students, students funding their own studies, and external students, in addition to almost 1,000 students completing their studies according to pre-Bologna curricula.
The Faculty of Political Sciences offers students a solid basis for the professional abilities they will require for their careers in various government bodies and institutions, corporations, the media, cultural and education institutions, and further studies at the Faculty or at similar faculties. To date, more than 40,000 students have enrolled at the Faculty of Political Sciences, of whom about 10,500 have already gained a degree in one of our study programmes. More than 300 students have defended their master’s thesis and almost 200 have defended their doctoral dissertation.
In the light of the experience and positive achievements of similar faculties in the region and beyond, the Faculty of Political Science’s teaching staff, researchers and associates are determined to provide current and future generations of young people in Bosnia and Herzegovina with a range of acknowledged, high-quality study programmes comparable with the majority of advanced studies in Europe. In this transitional period currently taking place in in Bosnia and Herzegovina, whereby higher education is focused on an interdisciplinary academic approach, the Faculty of Political Sciences will continue to develop the practical, applicative aspects of knowledge in the wider context of the social sciences and the humanities.
For more than twenty years, the Faculty has also been actively engaged in the advancement of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and has made an invaluable contribution to strengthening the country’s identity and culture. In addition to its basic mission—the education of young people in Bosnia and Herzegovina—the Faculty of Political Sciences of the University of Sarajevo will continue to demonstrate its commitment to the idea of common living, protection of the general good, and the transmission of its multicultural values and universal civilizational norms to future generations.
