The Kosovo government has put forward a landmark proposal that will make it easier for Kosovo Serbs and members of other minority groups to apply for jobs in public institutions.

The deal involves Kosovo accepting the validity of diplomas issued by the country's Serbian-language university in the Serb-run far north of the country.

Formerly part of the bi-lingual University of Pristina, the country’s public university during Yugoslavia, Serbian language faculties moved from Pristina to the northern, Serb-run half of the divided town of Mitrovica in 1999.

Since then, while study programs in Pristina were overseen by the Ministry of Education of Kosovo, Serbian-language programs continued in Mitrovica, using the Republic of Serbia’s higher educational program.

The draft document put forward during a government meeting by Education Minister Arsim Bajrami takes a “practical and constructive approach” to solving the problem.

“The current status quo in relation to the Univeristy of North Mitrovica obstructs the employment opportunities offered to those who have graduated from that university,” the proposal says.

While the university in Mitrovica has for 15 years catered to the needs of the Serbian community, the Kosovo Ministry of Education has refused to accept its diplomas as valid because the university has refused to integrate its curriculum into the national one.

As a result, graduates from the university in the north have not been able to apply for jobs in public institutions of Kosovo on the basis of the qualifications they gained.

Under the proposal, a commission will be formed that will issue “certificates to individual graduates that will be used in their job application process”.

The university in the north is only one example of the Serbian-run "parallel" education, administrative and political system that has functioned since the end of the conflict.

The system has continued to function within a framework that existed during the 1990s in Kosovo, when Kosovo was governed a province of Serbia.

Although the law already allows for the existence of an educational system for the Serbian community, based on the curriculum of the Ministry of Education of Serbia, it must be approved by Kosovo's own Education Ministry – which has never occurred.

Even the name of the university is a point of contention. Both higher educational bodies in Pristina and Mitrovica claim to be "The University of Pristina”. The one in the north refers to itself to as “The University of Pristina with a temporary seat in Kosovska Mitrovica.” Both issue diplomas that are valid
throughout Europe, but which are not accepted by their respective ministries.

The commission, once it is formed, will cooperate with the university in the north in approving the validity of the individual diplomas. The applicant will then obtain a certificate, “to be used for the purpose of applying for jobs in Kosovo public institutions”.

The Association of Serbian Municipalities, a political formation designed to integrate the Serbian municipalities into Kosovo while granting them wide autonomy, is expected to be formed this year.

The certificates will therefore make it easier for Kosovo Serbs to apply for jobs in the institutions that will be formed, as they become integrated into the Kosovo system.

The draft proposal, which has yet to go through parliament, also foresees the creation of a commission that will deal with the accreditation process for the university.

This might prove to be “a long and difficult process,” but will ensure that the university in the north becomes part of the Kosovo system, acting as an “autonomous public university” with its rights and independence in decision-making guaranteed.

Kosovo and Serbia reached an agreement on the mutual acceptance of diplomas in 2011 during the EU-led technical dialogue between the two countries. However, the agreement was never fully implemented.