ISLAMIC HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA AND DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVES

Abstract

The beginnings of higher education in BiH are connected to the establishment of Ottoman System of madrasas and to the founding of its most representative traditional educational institution, the Madrasa of Gazi Husrev Bey in Sarajevo. From its founding in the year 1537 on, it has been ranked higher than other madrasas in this region being the place where the higher Islamic education was acquired. Later on several other schools there were founded that, to the certain extent, had the character of higher educational institutions. Those are: Dar al- Mu‘allemin (1869) and School of Shari‘a Law (1889). However, the very first educational institution that was aimed at achieving the genuine level of higher education, in the modern sense of the word, was The Higher Islamic School for Shari‘a and Theology (1935). The paper is especially focused on higher education institutions founded by Islamic Community in BiH during the past three decades of the 20th century. Those institutions are: the Faculty of Islamic Studies in Sarajevo (1977), Islamic Pedagogical Faculty in Zenica (1993) and the Islamic Pedagogical Faculty in Bihać (1997). Despite the fact that these institutions were founded by Islamic Community, it cannot be said that they are part of a united, justified and inter-coordinated system of higher education. They are not gathered under a unique roof of academic institution of Islamic Community in BiH, but each of them has a status of adjoined member to one of the three completely secular universities. In 2003, BiH took over the implementation of the higher education reform. It implies arrangement of its study programs according to ECTS that has been prescribed by the principles of Bologna process to participate in European Higher Education Area. Participation of Islamic institutions of higher education in this process will determine the new perspective of their future development and, to a certain extent, cause the change of their nature, perhaps the very Islamic identity of their education. The question this paper raises is: will the adjustment to the new system of education, based on the principles formed by Christian values, imply the change of Islamic identity of education in higher education institutions of Islamic Community in BiH and gradually bring them to adopting the oriental and Eurocentric image of Islam instead of the Islamic one? The paper also actualizes possibilities for establishing the Islamic University in BiH. Under such university, the present higher education institutions of Islamic Community would become a genuine segment of the united structure by acquiring an appropriate academic subjectivity.