Belgium connection – Howest University of Applied Sciences
The Department of Media Studies has a long-standing partnership with the Journalism Department of Howest University in Kotrijk, Belgium, which began in 2016. Since then, final year journalism students at Howest University of Applied Sciences every year visit the Faculty of Philosophy, get to know the students of the Department of Media Studies, and during their stay in Novi Sad, a joint workshop is held in which they create media content together. We are proud of this wonderful collaboration and the opportunity for our students to connect with colleagues from Belgium, exchange experiences about studying in two countries and to create together.
Thanks to this beautiful cooperation, every school year within the Erasmus exchange program students of the Department of Media Studies have the opportunity to apply for a one-semester exchange and study at Howest University. A dozen students of the Department of Media Studies have stayed in Kortrijk so far, had the opportunity to study together with their Belgian colleagues, and all of them returned with nothing but positive experiences. As part of the Erasmus program for academic staff, several employees of Howest University visited the Faculty of Philosophy in previous years and gave a series of lectures to journalism students. At the same time, several employees of the Department of Media Studies stayed in Kortrijk and had the opportunity to teach students at Howest University.
Partnering with Partners – Freedom of information, privacy and more
Since 2018, the Department of Media Studies has had a very good cooperation with the partner non-governmental organization Partners for Democratic Change from Belgrade, whose main focus is on protecting the rule of law. Since 2018, about fifty of our students have been involved in their projects that dealt with the protection of the right to privacy and the presumption of innocence and insight into the work of judicial authorities with special attention focused on their application in the media. In several cycles, students had the opportunity to, together with their colleagues from the universities in Niš and Belgrade, attend Autumn Schools held at various locations throughout Serbia, where they had the opportunity to meet professionals from the media and the non-governmental sector dedicated to protecting the public interest. In addition to meeting with colleagues from other universities and socializing with them, the students gained knowledge and skills for reporting on challenges in the field of transparency, openness, responsibility and the fight against corruption, which are very important aspects of journalistic work.
Across the ocean – Partnership with the U.S. universities
Within the program “University Partnership” (Univerzitetsko partnerstvo) organized by the US Embassy in Serbia we have developed cooperation programmes with the University of Tennessee and Washington State University. Both programmes include intensive cooperation in the field of journalistic education.
The programme with Tennessee lasted two years (2020-2021) and during that time we organized a semester-long online course “Media and Democracy” and a visit of our students to Knoxville. We received a donation from the University of Tennessee consisting of four sets for mobile journalism, and the US Embassy in Belgrade financed the modern equipment for the TV studio.
We started cooperation with Washington State University in 2022 and it will include an online course for students from Serbia and from the States, as well as research mentoring sessions and short courses for students and young journalists in Serbia.