Special Session of the Senate on Higher Education: Will the Battle Be Fought in the KS Assembly

A special session of the UNSA Senate will be held today to discuss the Draft Law on Higher Education, prepared by the Ministry of Education, Science and Youth of the Sarajevo Canton, Patria reports.

Public discussions have already been held at several faculties, and numerous objections to this draft have been raised. The main objection is that the autonomy of UNSA is being lost, and students are also losing many rights.

On Monday, a public discussion was held at the Rectorate.

It is certain that this Draft Law will be sent back for revision, and according to information available to Patria, even if it reaches the KS Assembly, the battle will be fought there.

A discussion was held at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Sarajevo, where it was emphasized that the Government should withdraw this Draft from the procedure. The law undermines the autonomy of the University of Sarajevo itself, and the KS Government places it under political control. Furthermore, the Draft Law lacks a reform dimension and does not correspond to the proclaimed aspirations of harmonizing Bosnian-Herzegovinian legislation with European principles, which require granting real autonomy and responsibility to universities so that they can be innovative and capable of responding to changes.

This Law treats UNSA as just one of the institutions in the Sarajevo Canton, rather than one of the most significant state institutions.

Vice-Dean for Teaching at FPN, Lejla Turčilo, believes that UNSA should and must remain a state-building institution open to all students from across BiH, even at the expense of the KS. It is precisely the status of students that has been called into question by the new Draft; thus, a student who is financed by the founder's funds at a higher education institution as a public institution loses that status if they do not meet the conditions for enrollment in the next academic year, but can continue their studies as a regular self-financing student.

Knowing that the tuition fee for regular and self-financing students differs from 1,000 to several thousand KM per year, it is clear that there will be no support from students.

Additionally, an objection is that under the new Draft, students cannot enroll in a master's program at another related faculty after completing their undergraduate studies but must remain at their home faculty. The students' demand is that this part of the law be changed.

Students believe that circumstances such as illness should be taken into account, or that flexibility should be allowed so that someone who repeats one year during a single study cycle does not lose their regular student status, or that the first cycle of study should be free of charge, while the second should be paid for.

If a genuine reform of higher education and scientific research activities is truly desired, then it is necessary to separately adopt the Law on Higher Education and the Law on UNSA, and to form a separate ministry for higher education and science of the KS – it was concluded during the discussion.