Kazaz: This is "Konaković's Law on Money", not Education

The commercialization of knowledge implemented by Bologna has led to a managerial relationship between universities and the knowledge within them. Managers have become more important than scientists, stated Enver Kazaz, a professor at the Faculty of Philosophy in Sarajevo, on the N1 program, reports the Patria News Agency.

Speaking about the new Law on Higher Education in the Sarajevo Canton (KS), Kazaz said that the discussion about the law itself is being conducted in the wrong way.

- I think the discussion about the new Law on Higher Education in KS in our public is being conducted in the wrong way. Political elites and academic leaders have directed the discussion towards the relationship between management bodies and political authorities. The fact is that the higher education reform being implemented in BiH has been completely wrong for the last 20 years - he said and added:

- In the spirit of commercialization of education, we are a society that has opened state faculties without any criteria. Before the war, there was only one Faculty of Philosophy, today there are five. The reform process dictated the Bologna reform, which led to the exclusion of higher education from the needs of the economy.

Kazaz believes that universities have become a place for legitimizing ruling ideologies.

- Every cantonal potentate could establish a faculty without examining the needs of the economy and analyzing market demands. When such a law is examined, it is clear that it is not a reformist law but a dictatorial one. Especially since it talks about public universities, rather than a series of private ones.

He added that faculties and departments in the KS area have been opened without any criteria.

- In the KS area alone, there are 19 English studies programs, which means they were opened without any criteria and that the authorities favored the opening of such faculties. The state of our higher education is catastrophic. The academic community does not dare to open Pandora's box of higher education. The academic community has lost all possible social credibility and influence.

Kazaz believes that our academic community is traumatized by the strong influence of ideology in the scientific field. Today, every cantonal potentate can lecture the university, Kazaz said. He emphasized that "the destruction of education has been ongoing for the last 20 years.".

- The League of Communists opened universities with the aim of transforming BiH from a rural to an industrial country within 20 years. For 20 years, the destruction of education and the ideological occupation of knowledge have been ongoing in BiH. The KS government cares about only one thing - controlling money. I call this "Konaković's Law on Money", not on education" - says the professor, adding that this law could be the "death of the university".

- The new law has destroyed departments as places for the production of the teaching process and knowledge. The new law does not provide for competition in knowledge; instead, students are given the opportunity to dismiss professors. Now we have a UniZVERitet (University of Beasts) and instead of Sveučilište (University), we have SveMUČIlište (University of Suffering). This law is the death of the university; the situation is such that the authorities are spinning and talking about a reform law without insight into education - Kazaz concluded.