SANU requests the withdrawal of the amendments to the Law on Higher Education
The Committee for Higher Education SANU sent a letter to the Ministry of Education and the Government of Serbia in which it called for the proposed amendments to the law on higher education to be withdrawn from the parliamentary procedure.
Their adoption and implementation, according to the board, would lead to jeopardizing the existing quality of higher education in Serbia.
They stated that the changes are proposed to enable foreign universities to implement their programs of academic studies (undergraduate, master’s and doctoral) only on the basis of an agreement to be signed with the Ministry of Education, as well as that foreign faculties will be able to be financed from the Serbian budget.
“The first problem related to the proposed changes to the law is procedural. Allowing foreign higher education institutions to participate in the process of higher education in Serbia represents a very serious change that should by no means be adopted without a broad public discussion, as it seems to be,” said the Board of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts for Higher Education.
They also stated that the proposed changes “collapse the existing system of quality assurance in higher education in Serbia”.
“Foreign faculties will not have the obligation to accredit their programs according to the standards and procedures valid in Serbia. They will obtain a work permit based on an agreement with the Ministry, which does not have the capacity to check the quality of study programs, which is why the National Accreditation Body was established,” the announcement reads.
The board assessed that it is also problematic to enable budget funds to finance programs for which there is no guarantee that they are of high quality, which, as stated, is contrary to the public interest.
“At the same time, our citizens who would study on these programs would not receive a diploma that would be valid in our country, which renders the financing of those students from public funds pointless,” assessed the SANU Board for Higher Education.
Source: Beta
Photo: Unsplash, Beta
Source: bizlife.rs
