The Bologna Declaration and the Serbian Law

Although Serbia and Montenegro have only recently signed the Bologna Declaration, the preliminary draft of the new law on higher education is already under public discussion, which has been ongoing since September 1.9. until 1.10.2003. Despite the "strong opposition of the academic world" to legal solutions, there is no attempt in the media to seriously analyze the reasons for the opposition. These days, heated discussions are taking place at the faculties of the University of Belgrade, where the existing preliminary draft is characterized as an essentially unacceptable and legally unusable text, but there is not a word about it in public. Judging by your text, it is about the conservatism of the University, which sees itself as "a body beyond the banality of the market". Things, however, are not like that. The University of Belgrade and its faculties accept the guidelines of the Bologna Declaration, but they cannot and must not accept hasty laws, which completely negate tradition and create chaos in which anything is possible. The Bologna Declaration does not even ask us to do that. What is required is the harmonization of the existing system with the general provisions in order to create a single European educational space, within the next six years. Unfortunately, the Ministry of Education and Sports, through the very persistent assistant minister Srbijanka Turajlić, insists that the controversial preliminary draft be put into parliamentary procedure already in October, as if all deadlines had already passed. Judging by the current situation in the parliament, there are high chances that the law will be adopted. And what will he bring? Here are just some of the news:

Position university i faculty inside of university. The main bearers of higher education in our country are faculties, and their role and place in higher education are precisely defined in all previous laws. Faculties are almost not mentioned in this preliminary draft, except that the transitional provisions stipulate that all faculties within the University will cease to have the status of a legal entity in 2006 at the latest. Admittedly, the possibility is left for universities to establish faculties, and even to give them the status of a legal entity, but only with the consent of the National Council for Higher Education. The existing faculties within the University are practically equal to the study programs. Namely, in the current law, a university is defined as a union of at least three faculties, and the draft law explicitly states that university status can be achieved with at least five accredited study programs for obtaining higher education in at least three different fields. The law provides a very debatable division into areas from which study programs can be proposed. On the other hand, the concept of study program can be identified with the concept of departments at individual faculties, that is, with the curricula of departments, which creates complete and unnecessary confusion. The previous role of faculties and universities is extremely relativized by the fact that the preliminary draft of the law foresees that re-accreditation of study programs and higher education institutions is carried out periodically, at intervals of no longer than five years. Accreditation is performed by the Accreditation Commission appointed by the National Council. New study programs can also be introduced only with accreditation. Giving such broad powers to the National Council, a body of 15 members, fundamentally limits the autonomy of the university and its development. Previous experiences with similar bodies (National Broadcasting Council) indicate the high risk of such an approach to solving problems in such an important area as higher education.

Position faculty outside university. These higher education institutions, which until now had a marginal role in the process of higher education in our country, are being renamed high schools with the status of a legal entity, which can perform all activities including master's studies, which puts the faculties within the university in a completely subordinate position.

Position higher ones school. According to this draft, higher schools, which until now were two or three-year schools, grow into high schools professional study, where, in addition to basic (3 years), postgraduate specialist studies (2 years) are also implemented. The issue of competence for such a transformation should be resolved by accreditation.

Basic i postgraduate studies. Higher education basic studies are divided into academic and vocational, which is an extremely unclear division. Postgraduate studies are divided into specialist, master's and doctoral studies. In accordance with the Bologna Declaration, the level of acquired knowledge required for obtaining a diploma of basic academic studies is lowered to a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 4 years. Specialist and master's studies are practically equalized (together with the basic one, they last a total of 5 years). The devaluation of master's studies can be seen from the fact that in the transitional provisions, the acquired higher education lasting more than 4 years is equated with the education acquired at the master's studies.

Position assistants i assistants intern. It is suggested that instead of the current trainee assistants (choice for 4 years), teaching assistants from among students of master's or specialist studies are hired for one year, and that assistants are selected for 3 years from among doctoral students. Both proposed solutions absolutely do not correspond to our working conditions with a large number of students, who require experienced teaching assistants. On the other hand, it is certain that the vast majority of talented young people in such conditions would seek their existence outside the university.

In the existing draft of the law on higher education, there are still a number of major failures. Listen to the academic community, you will have something to hear.