Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina Backs AI Use in University Teaching
By Suad Seferi ·
Universities in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina are receiving government support to introduce artificial intelligence tools into teaching and improve the digital skills of academic staff. The Federal Ministry of Education and Science published the final results of its latest higher-education support programme on September 4, including a dedicated funding category for the use of AI tools in teaching and the development of lecturers’ digital skills. The programme is part of a wider funding initiative aimed at the development of higher education in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Other areas supported through the call include additional pedagogical training for university assistants, closer links between study programmes and labour-market needs, and international summer-school programmes. The AI component, however, reflects a wider change already under way across universities in the region: institutions are moving beyond debates about whether students should use generative AI and beginning to consider how the technology should be integrated into teaching itself. From individual use to institutional adoption When the funding call was announced in June, the ministry explicitly listed support for universities applying AI tools in teaching alongside improving lecturers’ digital capabilities. Applications closed in July, with the final results published this month. That matters because much of the early response to generative AI in higher education has focused on students. Universities have spent the past few years dealing with questions around AI-assisted assignments, plagiarism, examinations and academic integrity. Less attention has been given to the skills lecturers themselves need if AI becomes part of everyday teaching. Those skills go beyond learning how to use a chatbot. Academic staff need to understand where AI-generated information can be unreliable, what types of data should not be entered into external systems, how AI affects assessment design and when students should be expected to disclose its use. They also need to decide where AI genuinely contributes to learning and where it simply makes a task faster without improving understanding. By including both tools and teacher skills in the same programme, the ministry is effectively treating the two issues as connected. Bosnia’s AI discussion is broadening The initiative comes as Bosnia and Herzegovina slowly develops a broader policy conversation around artificial intelligence. Until recently, much of the country's AI activity came from universities, technology companies, researchers and individual projects rather than coordinated public policy. That is beginning to change. Education is one of the areas where governments can influence AI adoption relatively quickly because public institutions already have established funding programmes, training structures and relationships with universities. The question is what universities do with that support. Introducing AI tools without clear academic rules could create new problems around assessment, privacy and unequal access. Training lecturers without giving them space to redesign courses would have limited effect as well. The strongest university approaches emerging elsewhere in Europe increasingly combine access to technology with clear rules about responsibility, transparency and academic judgement. An opportunity to build rules alongside adoption For universities in the Federation, the funding creates an opportunity to develop those practices before AI use becomes even more deeply embedded in student work. That could mean redesigning assignments, training staff to evaluate AI-generated content, creating guidance on appropriate use and experimenting with AI-assisted teaching in areas where it can provide measurable benefits. It could also provide lessons for other higher-education institutions across Bosnia and Herzegovina, where education policy is divided across different levels of government. The September results do not settle how individual universities will ultimately use AI. They do, however, mark an important shift. AI in higher education is beginning to move from something students adopt independently to something public institutions are prepared to fund, organise and teach around. The next question is what the selected universities build with that support, and whether the projects produce practices that can be used more widely across the country.