In northern Kosovo, an English-language public college has become a shared space for Albanians, Serbs and other students, challenging those who claim integration is not possible.
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Fresh from her last sociology lecture of the morning, Tijana Radomirovic joined the rest of her team for project work. There were Serbs on the team, like Radomirovic, as well as Albanians and Bosniaks. The working language was English.
Even in its choice of location, on the municipal border between northern and southern Mitrovica in Kosovo, the International Business College in Mitrovica, IBCM, seeks to bridge divides.
The college grew out of a non-profit foundation created in 2005 by the Dutch NGO SPARK, which supports education in conflict-affected regions.
When it opened its doors in 2010, IBCM was split like the rest of the city between the mainly Serb north and mainly Albanian south, but in 2017, it took the step to integrate. Serbs and Albanians now attend classes on either side, depending on the faculty, not their ethnicity.