Linnaeus University gets SEK 9.8 million to start first IT graduate school in Kosovo

Linnaeus University gets SEK 9.8 million to start first IT graduate school in Kosovo

Linnaeus University has been granted close to SEK 9.8 million (Euro 909,300) from the EU programme Erasmus+ to establish and develop an IT graduate school in Kosovo. The project starts on 15 November and will go on for three years. The aim is to establish a national syllabus for third-cycle education within the field of IT in order to contribute to the development of the country’s research skills.

The expectation is that the third-cycle education will contribute to the development of research skills, and in that way contribute to the development of higher education as well as the trade and industry and the public sector in Kosovo.

“Since 2006, the Faculty of Technology has worked together with universities in the western Balkans through, for instance, exchange projects. The idea to contribute to the establishment of a graduate school came in connection to our exchange with University for Business and Technology in Kosovo during the autumn 2018”, says Anita Mirijamdotter, professor of informatics at Linnaeus University and coordinator for the project.

No third-cycle education

When Anita Mirijamdotter and her colleagues looked more closely at the needs, they saw that at the moment there was no third-cycle education within the field of IT in Kosovo, despite the fact that IT is a nationally prioritised area of development in the country.

“Several employees at Linnaeus University have their backgrounds in the western Balkans, and we have had a number of doctoral students from Kosovo who have defended their doctoral theses at the faculty. Therefore, there is a large driving force to contribute to the region’s development – education-wise, socially, and economically. A graduate school can play an important part in this development”, says Mirijamdotter.

The Faculty of Technology at Linnaeus University is behind the project, which is part of the faculty’s internationalisation activities and will strengthen the research carried out by the faculty. The ambition is that the faculty’s graduate school in computer and information science should become a model for the national third-cycle education in Kosovo.

“Our senior lecturers and professors can contribute with their competencies through supervision of different doctoral student projects. These will be linked to problems that are relevant to Kosovo’s trade and industry and its organisations and their development, which will contribute with a social benefit perspective that we can learn from also at home”, concludes Mirijamdotter.

More about the project

The universities in Kosovo that initially take part are University for Business and Technology, University of Pristina, and University of Prizren “Ukshin Hoti”. The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and the Accreditation Office are on board as partner organisations in Kosovo in order to ensure that the project has national support from authorities, partly to ensure that the graduate school will enjoy a sustainable continuation once the project is finished.

Other universities that are part of the project are Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and South-East European Research Centre in Greece. These universities also have active collaborations in the region.

Contact

Anita Mirijamdotter, professor of informatics and coordinator for the project, phone +4670-337 75 24, email [email protected]

Simon Kristoffersson, communications officer, phone +4673-051 45 09, email[email protected]