Minister of Education Dejan Vuk Stanković stated that faculties that make up for lost classes will receive quotas for enrolling a new generation of students and will be able to conduct enrollment. Conversely, faculties that do not make up for lost classes and lose a year will not be able to enroll new students.
Appearing on K1 television, Dejan Vuk Stanković said that faculties that do not get into the “lifeboat” will erase themselves from the academic map, and warned that time is running out. He emphasized that faculties need to be more serious and responsible regarding deadlines, RTS reported, citing Tanjug.
“You can still buy tickets, but I think they’re running out. I think time is running out. All of this has been going on for too long, and the stakes are enormous – the survival of education. There are still those who live in a specific political state that combines fantasy with some defiance and an escape from responsibility for what has been done in recent months,” Stanković said.
He assessed that it is time for everyone at the university, regardless of their political affiliation, to draw a line, stressing that the priority of all priorities is for Serbia to have a functional higher education system.
Stanković said that online classes are a forced and temporary solution for this academic year and are a consequence of the circumstances we are in.
“It is what it is, online classes are better, perhaps even greater dynamism when it comes to exam periods, but for the university to simply fulfill its debt to students and society, which is to transfer knowledge and verify that knowledge among students,” Stanković said.
Speaking about the deadlines for faculties to make up for lost classes, Stanković said that compensation plans differ from faculty to faculty. He added that faculties with theoretical instruction, with a little more effort and engagement from teachers and students working on online platforms, can finish it faster.
“I spoke with people from the Faculty of Mathematics; their intensive course, which would cover most of the first year’s material, lasts ten weeks. They have already started, and it is already paying off for them in a certain way because the state fairly rewards everyone who is ready to make up for classes with the earnings they deserve. We want a policy of clear accounts,” Stanković said.
He emphasized that those who wish to remain part of the problem process will be “thrown out of the lifeboat and those institutions will dissolve themselves.”
“Certain Faculties Facing Serious Financial Challenges”
He warned that some faculties are facing serious financial and organizational challenges that could jeopardize their survival. He pointed out that faculty funding is based on the number of new students, and that certain institutions already have debts.
“If you don’t have new students, and you don’t have a basis to receive money, how will they survive? The Faculty of Medicine has 1,000 foreign students whose tuition costs several thousand euros. Undelivered service implies a request for compensation, with default interest. Who covers that debt? Do they have enough own income to compensate for that damage? Domestic students, who are also self-financed but did not receive the service, can initiate this,” Stanković said.
He stated that deans and faculty administrations should think about this, and that the ministry and the government are creating organizational, financial, and normative prerequisites. He stressed that they are ready to help every faculty.
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Source: Danas; Photo: ATA Images