Event Goals:
Goal was to gather JFDP alumni and have them exchange their experiences in implementation of what they have learnt in the US on the JFDP. Also, alumni were encouraged to invite their colleagues to participate in the workshop, and thus spread the word about the JFDP and its goals.

Highlights:
There were three themes for the dicussion:

1) apects of American models of higher education that we, as JFDP alumni, mananged to implement at the faculties and colleges in Serbia

2) difficulties, resistances and problems we have encountered while implementing our American experiences in class, as well as in a broader sense, inside the academic community.

3) techniques in overcoming resistance in reforms implementation at universities in Serbia

Summary:
Challenges in teaching at institutions of higher education in Serbia:

- Great number of students, small classrooms, inability to focus on students as individuals
It can be solved by dividing students into groups and giving the same lectures several times, which is unusual at our universities, and entails additional effort on teachers part
- Two- or four- semester long courses, instead of semester long courses
Some of our JFDP alumni have already divided the course material into two units, meaning two different courses. If one course is divided into two units/courses, that does not necessarilly mean that the quality of the course will be reduced, but only stuctured differently, for the benefit of the students.
- Ex cathedra teaching technique
It does not exist in USA. Our JFDP alumni were decisive about giving up this teaching technique, but some of them still had to continue doing for the lack of options large numbers of students, lack of time and space to give lectures

Advantages of USA education:

- Meritocracy in USA, the value of the merit is recognized and the talents are being supported, and encouraged, whereas in Serbia it is quite the opposite.
- Even though undergraduate studies are generally less strong than undergraduate studies in Serbia and maybe at the similar level as Serbian high schools are (our high schools are outrageously difficult on the other hand), the graduate and doctoral studies are much more serious and of better quality than such studies in Serbia, and we should learn from Americans how to organize those levels of studies in Serbia. At masters level the groups are smaller; the work being done is serious and very thorough, whereas our master level is mostly the repetition of what has been done at the undergraduate level.
- Pragmatism Serbs should learn to be more pragmatic and our JFDP alumni have realized the importance of pragmatism during their stay in US.
- Internet culture the Americans find the Internet usage as something normal, such as landline or mobile phones usage, whereas in Serbia we have problems with introducing Internet at many universities, since the older professors do not realize the importance and necessity of the IT at universities, if their universities want to be competitive with other universities throughout the world.
- Classrooms shape the round-shaped classrooms in US provide the same learning conditions to all students who are present at the lecture.
- Our JFDP alumni learned and understood first hand what interaction between students and professors in the classroom really means, what is student-student teaching technique about, and how professors instigate their students to the guess the correct answers to questions.
- Job interviews our JFDP alumni were amazed by the fact that the future employers start visiting universities the second week their first semester of the first year of studies start to recruit the future employers! That culture does not exist in Serbia, and the fear that the most quality students will be taken by somebody else. Talent is obviously not so appreciated and valued in Serbia as it is in USA.
- Textbooks the uniformity of textbooks throughout USA vs. different textbooks for the same courses at our universities. The professors convey their knowledge to students through textbooks, case studies and make emphasis on the student ability development.
- Professors attract students to sign up for their courses not only with their GOOD NAME, but with the CONTENT of their course, and the TEACHING TECNHIQUES the professors uses.
ALUMNI NETWORK and RESPECT OF STUDENTS TOWARDS THE INSTITUTION - US universities have strong network of alumni who pledge to contribute to their university after they graduate. Such examples are: the students sign the pledge to give up 10% of their first yearly salary which would be transferred to an established fund, and spent on the activities, things and causes explained in detail and defined in the alumni fund written policy. In Serbia, there is no such a thing as alumni network
- BANKS in USA they devote to the community service.
BOLOGNA DECLARATION students have positive impressions in general about it.

Results:
Since particants of the workshop belong to a variety of fields, the event was very interesting and all of them commented that they hears lot of new appraoches during the event and that those had given them ideas how to cope with their problems if they occur.

Follow Up:
- To conduct a survey among students about the Bologna declaration implementation
- To organize public debate, but NOT at the university, about the Bologna declaration implementation in Serbia. Universities should be invited, but not the location of the event, because if so the debate would be considered as an internal matter of the university.