The Higher Education Bill is a fundamentally new document, – M.Zgurovsky

KPI Rector Mykhailo Zgurovsky noted that the result of the work of the working group was the development of a fundamentally new document that has a different ideology

Describing the new draft law on higher education, the head of the working group noted that when developing the new draft law «On Higher Education», the interests of all parties were taken into account: students, teachers, business and the state.

«Work on the draft law was carried out on the basis of a wide public discussion by representatives of the public, students, organizations representing different opinions. Over 3 thousand proposals for the law were received via the Internet, representatives of over 30 organizations participated in the working group. The document was created on the basis of the consolidation of three draft laws registered in the Verkhovna Rada,» Zgurovsky noted.

According to him, the conceptual principles underlying the draft law are delimitation of powers between state administration bodies and universities. In addition, the bill provides for a transition from accreditation of a specialty to accreditation of directions, industries and provides the opportunity for universities to open specializations, based on the needs of the labor market. Also, an independent assessment of the quality of higher education is coordinated with European and international organizations.

He added that for the development of university science and innovations, tax and customs benefits will be provided for business in terms of its cooperation with university science and the statuses of national and research universities will be clarified.

«We propose that the total volume of state orders be carried out by at least 51% of school graduates, by country, in order to remove voluntarism and subjectivism in state orders. We have made this procedure transparent,» said Mykhailo Zgurovsky. He added that the bill prohibits changing tuition fees throughout the entire period of study.

«As a result of the work that our group carried out, we received a fundamentally new document, because we initially wanted to make additions and changes to the current law, but when we imposed a different ideology, we had to go all the way with the ideology that we proposed. And therefore, from Article 71 of the Government’s draft law, we changed 67 articles. The document incorporated the best norms from three draft laws, proposals from wide circles of the public,» the head of the working group emphasized.

Prime Minister Mykola Azarov emphasized that the draft law on higher education is extremely important for the development of the country, and that is why the Government pays such special attention to its development. According to him, the development of the draft law was carried out as carefully as possible, as required by the President, with broad discussions with society: university rectors, experts, students and all interested parties. As a result of such a discussion, a consolidated document was developed that takes into account the interests of all parties.

«We returned to this bill not because someone took to the streets. No. The fact is that when the discussion in society began on the concept of this bill, it became clear to us that the concept that was laid down, in which the administrative vertical of the ministry was repeated over such an important and serious area as education, is unacceptable,» said Mykola Azarov.

In turn, the president of the National University «Kyiv-Mohyla Academy» Serhiy Kvit noted that for the first time in the history of Ukraine, the bill was developed so thoroughly and qualitatively. «The situation is truly unique when the Prime Minister hands over the bill into the hands of the academic community, and this community works on it, and works on it by consensus. It seems to me that this is a very good example and a very good democratic precedent.»

At the same time, activists of the Civic Movement «Vidsich», who actively protested against the adoption of the law on education during previous public hearings, noted that the new bill takes into account almost all the proposals of the public. «This is already a joint bill of a large part of the academic community, educators, scientists, public organizations, expert organizations, including student organizations, who protested,» said public activist Mykhailo Svistovych.