Croatia, Hungary, and Romani: Inclusive Solutions for Harmonized Education - CHERISH

The goal of this 20-month cross-border collaboration is to strengthen social inclusion in higher education, with a particular focus on engaging disadvantaged and Roma youth and reducing dropout rates.
The project’s professional activities are organized around three main areas: curriculum development, the adaptation of the vocational college model in Eszék, and the implementation of joint student projects, as well as the development of soft skills courses to support the prevention of dropout.
As part of the project, a specialized college will be established in Eszék, modeled after the one in Pécs, to provide a supportive community environment for Roma and other disadvantaged students. The program offers courses that develop skills such as assertive communication, public speaking and debate, as well as essay writing, research methodology, and effective reading.
Students in the college participate alongside high school students in creative projects designed to raise social awareness, such as short film production, storytelling, and the creation of artistic works.
The involvement of the broader university community is supported by three courses open to all students, which address the relationship between minorities and the majority society, the themes of social equality and inclusion, and the fundamentals of Romology.
The course materials will also be available in English, enabling the involvement of international students, while their digital format supports distance learning.
As a result of the project, a specialized college will be established in Osijek, and seven new curricula in English, Croatian, and Hungarian will be implemented, all of which will also be available in digital format. In addition, the partners’ student projects will generate numerous creative outputs, which can also be followed on the project’s YouTube channel. The partners will summarize the results and experiences gained in online publications.
The project is supported by the Interreg VI-A Hungary–Croatia program with co-financing from the European Union.