Amendments or a new law: Outgoing Government of Sarajevo Canton adopted the Draft Law on Higher Education

By: A. Varatanović

At yesterday's session of the Government of Sarajevo Canton, the Draft Law on Higher Education of Sarajevo Canton was on the agenda and was unanimously adopted, confirmed for the Patria News Agency by the Minister of Education of Sarajevo Canton, Zineta Bogunić. 

She stated that 18 articles of the current Law on Higher Education were removed, without specifying which ones, and that a large number of amendments were made. When asked whether it was a new law or amendments, Bogunić said that much had been changed, but it could not be said that it was a new law. 

According to a source from the Rectorate of the University of Sarajevo, it is a completely new law on higher education of Sarajevo Canton, not the amendments and supplements that had been requested over the past two years. The academic community had its demands because practice showed that the Law on Higher Education (entered into force in August 2017) was vague and even unenforceable in some of its provisions. 

Minister Bogunić says that the criteria have been tightened regarding selection for titles, i.e., academic advancement and scientific research work. 

„The goal was to raise the quality threshold of scientific research work,“ said Bogunić. 

One of the disputed provisions of the Law on Higher Education of Sarajevo Canton was that the Clinical Center of the University of Sarajevo was recognized as the teaching base for faculties of the medical group. When asked whether KCUS remained the only base, Minister Bogunić said that the teaching base would be determined according to the Federal law. 

Regardless of the fact that representatives of faculty groups and a representative of the Rectorate participated in the drafting of the Draft, it remains unclear why this sensitive issue concerning higher education was not discussed more, and it is indicative that the outgoing Government of Sarajevo Canton is considering such a significant law, which will be sent to the Assembly of Sarajevo Canton where there is a new parliamentary majority.

According to the procedure, a public debate will follow, but it is evident that dissatisfaction already exists within the academic community. Especially because there was an earlier initiative to work on drafting the Law on Higher Education and the Law on the University of Sarajevo. In this way, the oldest public university and private universities are almost equalized, raising suspicion that this opens up more space for private universities compared to UNSA.  

Also, the amendments to the law concerning academic advancement could actually halt further advancement due to criteria that few will be able to meet, and this will vary particularly from faculty to faculty.