The International Higher Education Support Program (HESP) of the Open Society Institute (OSI) invites project proposals for cross-border student initiatives from the following Southeast European (SEE) university student communities: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, and Serbia.
The aim of the Southeast European Student Initiatives (SESI) is to empower students to address issues related to systemic change in higher education. SESI supports the involvement of students in the democratization of the educational process and in building issue-based transnational student alliances in Southeast Europe.
For 2010, SESI invites student organizations and groups to submit project proposals for the following new student project in the SEE region:
- Student Solidarity for Antidiscrimination and Access to Higher Education in SEE countries
We are inviting project proposals for cross-border initiatives that would study the current practices of exclusion and advocate for the access to and inclusion in higher education of students on the grounds of gender, race, ethnicity, disability, religion and sexual orientation.
More than the initiatives by any of the groups interested in advocating for the inclusion of their own representatives, we are looking for initiatives that are driven by the spirit of solidarity among various student groups, take a broad look at the practices of exclusion, discrimination, humiliation and hatred resulting in limiting particular student groups’ access to higher education and advocate for the access and inclusion of two or more excluded groups, while covering two or more SEE countries.
The project proposals must include all three key elements of a usual SESI project – education (awareness building), research (in-depth study of the current situation) and advocacy to aim at making a tangible impact on opening access to SEE universities for the excluded and underrepresented groups by means of cultural, policy and legislative change.
The project proposals must meet the following requirements:
- be initiated and implemented primarily by undergraduate students;
- involve cross-border cooperation among student organizations and/or groups.
Project proposals may cover the preparation and actual running of the proposed activities, including preparatory meeting and/or training for network building, in-depth study on discrimination at higher education institutions in SEE, advocacy campaigns, etc. The maximum length of the project is 2 years.
Full project proposal should be submitted electronically to sesi@osi.hu no later than 15 April, 2010.
The submitted project proposal must include the detailed description of the project idea, the planned activities, the timeline of the project activities, expected outcomes of the project, short introduction of the partner organizations, CVs of the project leaders, estimated budget of the project.
Selection Procedure:
An International Expert Committee will perform the selection of the applications. The results of the selection will be announced in May/June 2010. Possible project start: September, 2010.
For additional information please contact:
Ms. Krisztina Szeberin
Program Coordinator
Higher Education Support Program
Open Society Institute-Budapest
Phone: (+36 1) 882-3850
Fax: (+36 1) 882-3112
E-mail: sesi@osi.hu