At the session on Friday, the Government of Serbia adopted the Conclusion on withdrawing from the parliamentary procedure Proposal for a Law on Amendments to the Law on Higher Education. It was assessed that it is necessary to conduct additional consultations on the issues that are the subject of this law, writes FoNet.
Serbian Prime Minister Miloš Vučević said yes earlier announced the withdrawal of that proposal due to "unprecedented pressure and blackmail" from the management and professors of the University of Belgrade, who threatened to suspend work.
What was disputed in the Bill
These amendments to the law would open the way for the arrival of foreign higher education institutions in Serbia. As "Vreme" wrote, in the Proposal to amend the Law on Higher Education, it is written that in the future the state will be able to subsidize foreign universities in Serbia, as well as that these universities will receive work permits only on the basis of an agreement with the Ministry of Education.
Former Minister of Education Srđan Verbić was the first to respond to this proposal. He is in an interview for "Vreme" said that those foreign universities would come to us and just rent space, because "nobody 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 have a degree from a foreign university. The conditions, the environment, the atmosphere that that university would provide, not even the knowledge, would not be the same and all this would be because of the diploma".
Former rector Ivanka Popović in the new issue of "Vremena" it is written: "Private universities, domestic and foreign, will be entitled to funding from the budget, and the status of a budget student will probably be handed out more by favor and loyalty than by merit." I do not share the opinion of the Minister of Education that young people leave this country because there are no good universities. They are leaving this country because there is no hope left in it. And without quality education, there is no future".
Finally, the academic committee for higher education of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU) pointed out that the amendments to the law are problematic, which sent a letter to the Government of the Republic of Serbia and the Ministry of Education of the RS on Monday, November 18, stating that the proposed amendments The Law on Higher Education, which the Government of the Republic of Serbia sent to the National Assembly, is problematic and that their adoption and implementation would lead to jeopardizing the existing quality of higher education in Serbia.
