The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia, Nikola Selaković, signed today a protocol on cooperation with representatives of the Organisation of Serbian Students Abroad (OSSA), which, among other things, offers the possibility to a number of our students at foreign universities to do their professional internship at Serbian diplomatic and consular missions and attend the Diplomatic Academy each year.

On that occasion, Minister Selaković said that the goal was to identify each of our young men and women studying abroad and expressing desire to return to their homeland, find employment, work, live, raise a family and achieve professional success here.

“This will be one of the serious priorities in our future activities,” Selaković said after signing the protocol.

As he explained, various forms of cooperation were envisaged, from enabling professional internships in our embassies and consulates general, to participating in acquiring specialist knowledge at the Diplomatic Academy upon return from studies abroad, and connecting our young experts from abroad with employers in Serbia.

“On the basis of the Protocol on Cooperation signed today, we will take special care of our students abroad in the future, and that care will be seen in our actions aimed first at being a good service to them in the places where our diplomatic and consular missions are located, but also action regarding their return to the homeland, because Serbia needs even greater intellectual power that our young people are currently acquiring and carrying in their studies abroad,” said Selaković.

OSSA President Aleksandar Ljubomirović said on this occasion that a big step had been taken today towards gathering Serbian students currently studying abroad, a message was sent that students abroad had not been forgotten by their homeland, and that MFA would do anything in the future to facilitate return of our students to Serbia.

According to an OSSA survey conducted in 2020, 31 percent of the Serbian students currently completing their education abroad want to return to Serbia.

“It is up to us, in cooperation with the MFA, to do everything in our power to bring these students back, or at least to encourage them to return to Serbia. This year, we will create a platform that will gather around 40,000 of our students abroad, and the second step is to connect those students with our institutions and companies in Serbia,” said Ljubomirović.

According to him, the desire to return exists, because this generation of students is patriotically inclined and wants to contribute to the development of Serbian society, economy and political scene.

Source and photo: Directorate for Cooperation with the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region