Slobomir P University- English>

Slobomir P University has established cooperation with numerous universities from the region and abroad, among which Northern Illinois University from Chicago can be singled out (one of the biggest American state universities). An agreement on long-termed strategic partnership was signed with Northern Illinois University on June 18, 2008. The Partnership included four areas: student exchange, teaching process, business aspect and administration. On the base of this agreement, professor Nancy Russo, PhD full professor and the former Dean of NIU’s College of Business, was established as the Vice-Rector for international relations at Slobomir P University.

One of the first results of the partnership was the foundation of Business Learning Center (BLC) at SPU, which was devised after the model of Experiential Learning Center at NIU. BLC provides the students of SPU with the opportunity to tackle real-world business issues as a consultant team.  The sponsor of the first project was Mr. Phil Morris, an alumni of NIU, who is employed at the sector for strategic planning within ‘’McDonalds“corporation.  The aim of this project was to determine the best possible location In Bosnia and Herzegovina for opening a fast-food restaurant such as McDonalds and also to recognize local factors of importance for such a venture.

The team of: Jelena Lubura, Mirko Simanić, Milan Marjanović, Mladen Marjanović, Slađana Kostadinović, Tijana Milovanović, Tanja Tomić and Vaso Arsenović presented the results of their project to the management of McDonalds corporation at their headquarters in Chicago on April 22, 2009. McDonald’s management was very impressed by the results and pointed out that ‘’ the team has identified precisely those parameters that they also take into consideration when exploring new locations’’. Another BLC project is in progress. The sponsor of this project is Mr. Dražen Savic of ‘’Blackhawk bank“in Rockford, Illinois.  The team is supposed to develop the credit rating system, which would be characteristic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Furthermore, the team is supposed to research how such a system could be applied within the customer relations management system.

Students of Slobomir P University attended lectures of some visiting professors, as a result of this cooperation, and some of them are:

• Professor Richard Born, PhD, professor at the Department for operational management and information systems at Northern Illinois University

• Professor Pol Vlajčić, PhD, teaches at Northern Illinois University

• Professor Mark S. Rosenbaum, PhD, professor of marketing at Northern Illinois University, who also held one-day seminar in Slobomir and Doboj.

• Phil Morris founded Business Learning Center at Slobomir P University. He holds a B.S.in Operations and Information Management at Northern Illinois University, College of Business. He works as It Research Analyst for McDonald’s.