Will the amendments of the UNSA Senate to the Draft Law on Higher Education be considered?

The Ministry of Education, Science and Youth of Sarajevo Canton has received the amendments of the Senate of the University of Sarajevo to the text of the Draft Law on Higher Education, and they will be subject to consideration in the next phase of the procedure. At this moment, it is not possible to state a position on the potential validity of any of the submitted amendments of the University Senate, stated Sifet Kukuruz, Assistant Minister for Higher Education, for the Patria agency.

We recall, the Senate of the University of Sarajevo sent 84 amendments to the Draft Law on Higher Education to the Government of Sarajevo Canton, and a postponement of the Draft's further procedure was requested until an agreement on the text of the law is reached.

Kukuruz confirmed that the text of the Draft Law on Higher Education will be amended.  

Among the amendments sent by the Senate is one stating that a natural person cannot establish a higher education institution, which is possible under the proposed Draft.

Also, one of the most significant amendments concerns Article 132, the composition of the Management Board of a higher education institution.

The Senate has now requested that 4 members be appointed to the Management Board on behalf of the Government of Sarajevo Canton as the founder, instead of six as was previously the case, along with one student representative and six members appointed by the UNSA Senate, totaling 11 members.

In this current form, the autonomy of the university is lost, something the academic community has been warning about for years.

One of the amendments also concerns the adoption of the Statute, and the academic community holds the view that the Senate should determine the text together with the opinion of the Management Board, but that the Senate is not bound by the opinion of the Management Board, although it is obliged to respect this obligation for the procedure to be lawful.

- The existing solution gives the Management Board a position of "co-decision," which is contrary to Article 31, paragraph 2 of the Draft.

A large number of amendments relate to student rights, exam periods, and methods of knowledge assessment, in which the Senate has presented a series of criticisms of the proposed Draft.

Also, the Senate requests the abolition of grading the final thesis, given that a student defends the thesis with a grade of 9 or 10, while having an average of 6.5 during their studies. It was requested that the final thesis within the first, second, and third cycles of study be graded as "successfully defended" or "not defended."

Furthermore, the Senate requested a change to the provision that a student can repeat a year only once, after which they lose their status as a regular student.

- Such a legal solution would affect an increase in the number of students who drop out of studies due to the inability to finance them.