Association President Dejan Pudar said that over 16,000 students from the Republic of Srpska are studying in Novi Sad and Belgrade, 10,000 of which are members of the Association. He pointed out that as many as 75% of the students from the Republic of Srpska study in those two cities in the homeland, but what is a big problem, very few of them return to the Republic of Srpska.

The Deputy Chairman of the Committee on the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region Milimir Vujadinovic agreed with the guest that it is extremely important to work on solving this problem, which is only possible through the active involvement of young people in social and political processes. He pointed out that the Open Balkans project which, among other things, aims to improve and facilitate the exchange of students, could be a great opportunity to overcome this problem.

"The goal should be for the students from the Republic of Srpska to feel at home, but for a greater number of them to return after completing their studies and get involved in the politics and social system of the Republic of Srpska. In that process, it is extremely important to build a good road infrastructure to make it easier for people to function on the Republic of Srpska - Republic of Serbia relation, which is also one of the goals of the Open Balkans initiative," emphasised Vujadinovic.

The students invited to the Deputy Chairman of the Committee on the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region and MP Nevena Djuric, who attended the meeting, to take part in the Bridge Conference, which will be held in Zlatibor in March this year, where they could talk about f good practice examples and the results of the Open Balkans project.

They also discussed the procedure for obtaining Serbian citizenship, where the students made observations that, although it is faster in Serbia than in many European countries, exercising this right does take a little long.