On December 8, 2015, Analitika organized a consultative meeting on the development of educational programs in the field of methodology in social sciences in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The meeting was organized within the framework of the Regional Research Promotion Programme (RRPP) in the Western Balkans. The aim was to determine current challenges, needs, priorities and possibilities for improvement of curricula in the field of methodology in social sciences in BiH.

The focus of the discussion was on the students’ needs, as well as needs of research institutions, i.e. on the adequacy of knowledge and skills necessary for conducting research in the field of social sciences. Several problems were identified: the lack of practical work in the field and in softwares for statistical data analysis, dominant theoretic focus of education in the field,the fact that education is often limited to only certain cycles of study, as well as the obsolescence of literature that is in use.

Experts also discussed the possibilities of improvement of the current curricula. The emphasis was on the need for the standardization of the process of education, and improvement of cooperation between experts in the field. They noted that the standardization would open up possibilities for improvement of quality of education in the field of research methods.