In the last 30 years, Bosnia and Herzegovina, like other countries of the Western Balkans, faced significant rates of emigration, which resulted in a significant loss of young talent. CREDI was hired by the ETH University of Zurich in Switzerland to carry out the research project “Brain Drain from Bosnia and Herzegovina: Educational Choices and Prospects for Migration.”
The main goal of this project is to better understand why young people from Bosnia and Herzegovina leave their homeland to study abroad and what skills they acquire as a result of migration opportunities. The project seeks to identify whether students from Bosnia and Herzegovina go to study abroad solely for educational reasons, or whether it is an anticipated long-term choice with the aim of maximizing the chances of living abroad, and whether and to what extent the prospects for migration influence the choice of college course and skill set which students acquire.
As part of the project, it is planned to collect answers from third and fourth grade high school students via an online questionnaire. The project was approved by the Ethics Committee of the ETH University of Zurich. The research will be conducted in accordance with the standards for the protection of research subjects, and in accordance with the Code of Ethics for research with and about children in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The results of the research will be available to the authorities/decision makers in Bosnia and Herzegovina through a summary document in the Bosnian language that will contain the main results of the study.