29 El Human Brain Project
Capítulo 9. Crítica filosófica a las técnicas y métodos de la neuroética
9.4 El poder de convicción de las neuroimágenes como un problema de comunicación científica
As it was previously indicated, RS and cantons in FBiH, as well as Brčko Dis- trict have their own laws and regulations on higher education. However, these laws need to be harmonised with state law. At the state level, higher education is regulated by the Framework Law on Higher Education in Bosnia and Herze- govina which was adopted in 2007. The law sets the basic standards and prin- ciples for the area of higher education. All other issues in the area of higher education that are not regulated by the law are governed by entity law in RS and cantonal laws in FBiH.46
In accordance with the laws and regulations, higher education institutions are funded by the corresponding RS or FBiH authorities. Higher education activi- ties are thus governed by either RS or FBiH legislation, with the Ministry of Civil Affairs at the state level assuming the task of coordinating the higher ed- ucation activities of the two entities. One of the main prerequisites for reform was the adoption of the Higher Education Law in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Fol- lowing its adoption, many challenges such as the establishment of a higher ed- ucation institution and a financing council will need to be addressed. Reforms within universities themselves represent a challenge — for example, the in- troduction and implementation of the ECTS and diploma supplements, as well as other Bologna Process initiatives.
In 2012 there were 48 higher education institutions in BiH, including 25 uni- versities (more private than public ones), 19 colleges (visoka škola) and four re- ligious universities.47 It is incredibly difficult to find exact data on the num-
ber of higher education institutions for 2015.48 This is mostly due to a growing
number of private higher education institutions in the country, more than are
46 Higher education in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Education, Audiovisual and Culture Execu-
tive Agency (EACEA), Unit P10 – Tempus and Bilateral Cooperation with Industrialised Coun- tries, http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/tempus/participating_countries/overview/bosnia_and_ herzegovina_country_fiche_final.pdf
47 N. Branković, Enrollment policy and higher education funding system in B&H, Center for
Research and Studies – GEA, August 2012. Accessed June 11, 2015, p. 15.
48 Even the Agency for the Development of Higher Education and Quality Assurance that has
been established by the Framework Law on Higher Education in BiH as an independent pub- lic organisation removed this information from its official website given that there has been some misunderstandings and misinterpretation; List of HEIs in BiH, Agency for Development of Higher Education and Quality Assurance, http://www.hea.gov.ba/kvalitet/evidencija_ vsu/Lista.aspx
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needed, in fact.49 However, the Law on Higher Education treats private and
public higher education institutions equally. There is almost no cooperation between and among different education ‘systems’ and where there is it tends to be primarily encouraged by the previously-mentioned institutions and laws. However, this cooperation is not sufficient to respond effectively to the chal- lenges posed by the Bologna Process and Lisbon Agenda.
The primary and secondary school curricular reform began in 2002 and calls for educational standards to reflect human rights values and contemporary educational approaches. Primary education in BiH is mandatory and free for all children from ages 6 through 15 and lasts for nine years in three three- year cycles (ages 6–9, 9–12 and 12–15). This system was firstly adopted in 2004, as a replacement for the old eight-year primary education system, offered to children from ages 6 through 14 in two four-year cycles (ages 6–10 and 10–14), which is still valid for children who began their education before 2004 and also in some regions after that date. Secondary education is also free. It be- gins at the age of 15 (or 14 as part of the previous system) and lasts for three or four years, depending on whether it is a general secondary school (gimnazija, medicinska škola, ekonomska škola, tehnička škola, muzička škola) or a vocation- al secondary school. Students who have graduated from general secondary schools and who have passed the high-school leaver’s exam or Matura exam can enrol into any university or college after passing a qualification exami- nation set by the institution, while students who graduated from vocational schools obtain a diploma.50
The main challenges of the education system in BiH, some of which will be further elaborated in the paper, are:
•
assimilation and segregation grounded in separate curricula for the three ‘constituent peoples’49 Throughout the Western Balkans, in BiH especially, there has been a boom of new private
universities. Some of them are certainly on their way to establishing themselves as serious institutions of higher education, but many raise doubts (the establishment, curricula, teach- ing staff, requirements, study time, corruption scandals). According to Florian Bieber, there are approximately as many private universities in the Western Balkan region as in the en- tire EU; F. Bieber, New Universities in the Balkans: European visions, UFOs and Megatrends, http://florianbieber.org/2011/06/26/new-universities-in-the-balkans-european-visions- ufos-and-megatrends/
50 World Data on Education, UNESCO http://www.ibe.unesco.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Pub-
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