International education and diplomacy: Education of Serbian students in internship in the 21st century

Abstract

The education of scholarship students abroad throughout Serbian history was conceived as a key factor that contributed to the development of the country of origin after the completion of education. In accordance with the needs of society, the creators of educational policies in the country of origin enacted regulations and measures that encouraged Serbian students to study abroad, but also to return to their home country after their education had been completed in order to contribute with their knowledge, their contacts to the development at home. This tradition has been maintained throughout Serbian history, so even today we have Government scholarship students who study at prestigious universities in the world. As this topic is insufficiently researched and modestly represented in scientific circles in Serbia, we received an incentive for the research. The analysis of the content of the available documents and regulations allows us to see the way in which Serbian scholars are educated abroad in the 21st century. On the other hand, the data obtained from the representatives of the "Fund for Young Talents of the Republic of Serbia-Dositej" allows us to statistically look at the data related to Serbian scholarship students who studied abroad in the period from 2008 to 2022.. Based on the obtained data, it is possible to get a picture of the profile of students-scholarship holders of the RS Government Fund "Dositej "-who a are studying abroad today. This paper also makes a theoretical contribution to research that analyzes the importance of international mobility and soft diplomacy. This paper identified the population of Serbian students studying abroad in the 21st century as scholarship recipients of the Fund for Young Talents of the Republic of Serbia, "Dositeja." Analysis of legal acts and quantitative data indicates that the scholarship program of the Fund for Young Talents of the Republic of Serbia, "Dositeja," is in an undefined academic space, somewhere between development, education, schooling, and graduation. when talking about academic mobility versus soft diplomacy (see: Kent, 2018). Today, Serbian scholars study in as many as 42 countries and choose the most prestigious faculties from the Shanghai list. Also, the analyzed data indicate that the education policy in Serbia aims to educate young talents abroad in economically developed countries, but at the same time, despite the contractual obligations, there is no group that ensures that insurance is provided, based on the data obtained. Also, the data show that today we do not have a clear picture of how many students received a scholarship because, when analyzing the data on awarded scholarships, there is no distribution of beneficiaries according to the criteria of older beneficiaries (Vasojević 2019), who continue their international education, which was also observed in previous research on this population. Based on the obtained data, we can only talk about the total number of awarded scholarships and not about the number of beneficiaries. It is clear that policymakers in recent years have been striving to solve the "blind spots" related to the project of educating Serbian students abroad, but they are also solving the gaps and deficiencies that are known in the security evidence of security studies. academic community and data collection through sophisticated longitudinal and internationally comparative tools. However, we should not ignore the well-known dimensions that categorize the "Dositej" scholarship as an international scholarship with features of soft power; the program itself recognizes the national interest, which Kirkland (2018) defines as the donor's desire to fill certain skills or other gaps in the labor market, where beneficiaries are encouraged (or even required) to be in the donor's country. The dimension of "merit" is also observed: "Scholarships are awarded to the most capable candidates, regardless of their personal background or the ability to influence national characteristics (Kirkland 2018).