"Unfortunately, there are people who do not want our children to study at foreign universities and that they can do so in Serbia, not outside our country. Regardless of all the pressures, we will continue to fight and our country will be a country of development and progress in which our children will have the opportunity to freely choose to be educated where they want and to remain in their homeland," said the Prime Minister of Serbia on Thursday. Miloš Vucevic.
That's how he explained the withdrawal amendment of the Law on Higher Education about which there has been a storm in recent days.
On Wednesday, the University of Belgrade threatened to suspend work if the announced change to the Law on Higher Education is implemented.
Those changes provided that foreign universities could simply open branches in Serbia without any accreditation from the National Accreditation Body. And not only that - the state would subsidize studying at those foreign faculties from the budget.
Verbić: Attempted prank
The proposal to amend the law caused stormy reactions in academic circles, and former Minister of Education Srđan Verbić was among the first to speak out. He is in interview for the new issue of "Vremena" stated that he could not get rid of the impression that the attempt to amend the Law on Higher Education was "an attempt to swindle that, at a time when no one is paying attention, together with the Budget Law and without public discussion, such a major change as opening the possibility that foreign universities appear".
Contrary to the Prime Minister's statement that some people do not want "our children to study at foreign universities and be able to do so in their own country", Verbić told "Vreme" that the experience of studying at a branch in Serbia cannot replace the authentic experience of studying at the home university .
"Those foreign universities would come to us and just rent space - no one wants to build a campus for a branch of a university." The only thing that would be gained in this way is that the students who enroll in it have a degree from a foreign university. The conditions, the environment, the atmosphere that university provides, and the knowledge, would not be the same and all this would be because of the diploma. In this way, we open the possibility to buy a diploma from a foreign university more cheaply, and we don't need that," says Verbić.
Popović: Collapse of higher education
Former rector of the University of Belgrade, Ivanka Popović author's text for the new issue of "Vremena" calls the announcement of changes to the Law on Higher Education and the subsidization of foreign universities the final step in the collapse of higher education.
"Income from their activities will end up abroad, and domestic institutions will weaken even more." "Private universities, domestic and foreign, will be entitled to funding from the budget, and the status of a budget student will probably be given more by favor and loyalty than by merit," writes Popović.
Two days before Vučević's announcement that the proposal to amend the law would be withdrawn, the Minister of Education Slavica Đukić Dejanović stated that "there is no question" of withdrawing the proposal.
She then said that, due to insufficient options in Serbia, young people go abroad to get an education. The former rector of the largest state university in Serbia does not agree with this.
"I do not share the opinion of the Minister of Education that young people are leaving this country because there are no good universities in it." They are leaving this country because there is no hope left in it. And without quality education, there is no future," writes Popović in the new issue of "Vremena".
Withdrawn bill
Disputed amendments to the bill which caused the academic community to react quickly refer to Article 52a, according to which the Ministry could issue a work permit to a foreign higher education institution, only on the basis of an agreement signed by the Ministry with a foreign higher education institution - i.e., without the National Accreditation Body issuing the permit certificate for work at state and private universities in Serbia.
In paragraphs 3 and 4 of the same article, it is added that funds can be provided from the budget of the Republic of Serbia for tuition fees, or part of students' tuition fees, as well as for other student expenses, and that the condition for issuing a work permit is "that the foreign higher education institution accredited in the state in which it has its headquarters and that the study programs for which it receives a work permit are accredited in the state in which it has its headquarters".
Regarding this provision of the law, the University of Belgrade emphasized that "it is not against competition, but against unequal conditions and unjustified privileging of foreign universities to the detriment of institutions of national and historical importance."
Read the entire text of Ivanka Popović and the interview with Srđan Verbić in the new issue of "Vremena", which hit newsstands on Thursday (November 21), or subscribe to the digital edition
