About NS Initiative and how it Came about

Novi Sad Initiative is a European bottom-up initiative addressing questions of structural reform in higher education with a special emphasise on Western Balkan Region. It tackles the hardest issues in higher education reform, some of which not being properly included in Bologna agenda yet.

The initiative evolved from the European expert seminar on institutional reform which took place in Novi Sad on October 28-30, 2005, now known as the "Novi Sad Initiative" (http://www.novisadseminar.uns.ac.rs/).

After the follow up events in Dubrovnik in 2007 (http://www.dubrovnikconference.uns.ac.rs/), and Sarajevo in 2009 (http://www.sarajevoconference.uns.ac.rs/ ), Novi Sad Initiative became Regional process with a series of biannual conferences (next two to take place in Petrovac 2012 and Tirana 2013; Petrovac Conference was originally planned for October 2011 and then postponed for May 2012 (http://www.petrovacconference.uns.ac.rs/). The closing conference for NS Initiative will take place in Novi Sad in 2015.

Wider European context of the Novi Sad Initiative is subject of special expert events which take place every five years (Novi Sad Seminar in 2005 http://www.novisadseminar.uns.ac.rs/ and Dubrovnik Forum on 2010 http://www.dubrovnikforum.uns.ac.rs/ ; last one to take place in London 2015.

Since 2009 Novi Sad Initiative operates under the umbrella of the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC), and its goals have been included in the RCC plan for 2011-1013.

In 2010, in the mature phase of Novi Sad Initiative, a large consortium of higher education institutions and authorities, intimately related to the Novi Sad Initiative, received three years EC grant (STREW Tempus project: 511355-TEMPUS-1-2010-1-RS-TEMPUS-SMHES) to build capacity for structural reform in Western Balkan Countries. Since then NS Initiative supports closely the goals of this project.