Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation Focus on UkraineJanuary 31 – February 6, 2011 TABLE OF CONTENTSІ. Overviews of political events of the week…………………………………………….3II. Analytical Reference……………….…………………………………………………………..4 Еducation. Bill on higher education: an imitation of reforms..................................... 4І. Overviews of political events of the week January 31 Students held a demonstration in Kyiv demanding the parliament to not vote for Bill No. 7486-1 “On Higher Education” (new edition), which members of the parliamentary majority plans to submit to the Verkhovna Rada for consideration in the upcoming session. The students feel the bill preserves the system of higher education in Ukraine and in several cases even more departs from European standards. The Pechersk District Court of Kyiv deemed that the murder of journalist Heorhiy Gongadze was not ordered, Valentyna Telychenko, the lawyer of the journalist’s mother Myroslava Gongadze, informed. The lawyer said the court did not feel the murder was ordered by late interior minister Yuriy Kravchenko and that Pukach acted not upon order, but merely executed a criminal directive. Telychenko said the court’s ruling will be appealed with the Appellate Court. February 1 The Verkhovna Rada made amendments to the Constitution in the chapter on setting the date of the next presidential and parliamentary elections. 310 MPs voted in favor of this decision – 180 members of the Party of Regions, BYuT – 7, OU-PSD – 41, Communists – 25, National Party – 20 and independent parties – 37. According to the approved amendments, the next parliamentary elections will be held in October 2012 and the presidential elections – in March 2015. President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek expressed his disappointment with the fact that the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine banned leader of the Batkivshchyna Party Yulia Tymoshenko from traveling to Brussels, the president’s press secretary Robert Holjansky informed. The press secretary also informed that Buzek is concerned about the retraction of freedom in Ukraine and the trend of criminal persecution of opposition politicians.Entrepreneurs held a demonstration in front of the building of the Oblast State Administration in Kharkiv demanding the dismissal of the government and the parliament. Head of the Kharkiv local entrepreneurs’ trade union Oleksandr Sharmar said entrepreneurs are disgruntled by the adopted Tax Code as it does not impose a moratorium on inspection of entrepreneurial activity that the participants of the recent protests of entrepreneurs on Independence Square in Kyiv demanded.^ The month of February in Ukraine kicked off with the announcement of hikes in electricity, municipal utilities services and gas tariffs. Economists forecast a continued rise in the prices of food products and other goods. February 2 Member of the Our Ukraine – People’s Self-defense bloc Volodymyr Aryev said the voting for the amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine was distorted. He said the Rada electronic system, which fixes the results of voting registered his vote when the card by which he should vote was on his person during a visit to the U.S. The opposition also said at least 25 MPs whose votes were registered by their cards were not present in the VR session hall. February 3 President Viktor Yanukovych signed the law “On Access to Public Information” and “On Information”. As a reminder, the laws envisage that any information that a civil servant or official possesses should be accessible to the public, with the exception of secret or confidential information. In addition, the law stipulates a 5-day term for responding to informational enquiries or a 48-hour term in the event an emergency situation. February 4 Ukraine is no longer a priority for the European Union, President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek stated at a press conference in Lisbon on issues of European development. Buzek said he is concerned about the state of freedom of speech and press in Ukraine and feels that the issues of independence of the judicial branch of power and the transparency of supremacy of the law in Ukraine are questionable. Buzek added that now European parliamentarians are placing their hopes on regional development in Moldova. The president of the Euro parliament also expressed his hope that Ukraine will get back on the right track. II. Analytical ReferenceЕducation ^ BILL ON HIGHER EDUCATION: AN IMITATION OF REFORMSOn January 31, 2011, students held an act of protest in Kyiv demanding the Ukrainian parliament not to pass Bill No. 7486-1 “On Higher Education”, which members of the parliamentary majority are planning to put up for consideration by the Verkhovna Rada at its next session.Members of the opposition and political analysts also expressed their concern about many provisions of this bill. Many MPs inside the government team negatively assess the adoption of the bill.^ What positive novelties and threats does the bill on higher education contain?Will the Verkhovna Rada pass the bill?Situation with the billIn November 2010 the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (MES, and since December 10, 2011 the Ministry of Education and Science, Youth and Sports, MESYS) drafted and posted on its official website the bill “On Higher Education”. This immediately elicited many observations by education experts and representatives of Ukrainian higher learning institutions (HLI), who pointed out that the bill in no way reforms higher education according to European standards and in certain spheres fundamentally aggravates the situation. Practically all criticisms of the bill were ignored and then in December an identical bill submitted by members of the Party of Regions was registered with the VR.On January 13, 2011, it came to light that the bill was approved by the VR Committee on Education and Science Issues. In response, members of the opposition noted that this decision was illegitimate, because during its consideration the committee did not have a quorum.On February 1, after the student demonstrations, the specialized committee decided to not include the bill on the order of the day. Instead, a decision was made that the bill should be put up for public debate in the form of hearings.At the same time, the possibility that this will be merely a temporary concession to opponents of the bill and that it will be included in the parliament’s order of the day in the near future cannot be ruled out. Content of the bill The need to reform the sphere of higher education is obvious to all participants in the education process. The drafters of Bill No. 7846-1 believe it should harmonized Ukraine system of higher education with European standards, strengthen the autonomy of HLI and, on the whole, improved the quality of higher education.However, experts believe the bill did not meet any of the set objectives. Moreover, the number of threats worked into the bill is much higher than its positive innovations. Experts consider the legislatively backed External Independent Grading (EIG) system and certain norms that harmonize the system of higher education in Ukraine with the Bologna Process to be priorities among such novelties and important criteria for the acceptance of applicants to HLI. To be sure, experts approved of the introduction of a system of educational qualifications levels and a PhD degree.Despite this, there were mixed reactions to this novelty among experts, who said a PhD is merely different name for the previous degree of Candidate of Sciences.The negative aspects of the bill drew much greater attention. First of all, experts warn that the adoption of this law will strengthen the centralization of education and limit the autonomy of HLI, particularly in the sphere of the content of education that the MESYS will continue to define at its own discretion.Secondly, experts feel the introduction of qualitative criteria for defining the status of HLI is totally unacceptable. Indeed, the bill envisages that only HLI in which less than 10,000 students study will be considered a classical university. Such a novelty violates the logic of classification of HLI as it only takes into account a formal indicator that in no way testifies to the quality of education.Should this norm be embodied even those HLI that by many ratings are the best in Ukraine, in particular, the National University Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, could be deprived of the status of a university.Thirdly, in the new bill higher education will continue to not meet the demands of the labor market, which clearly will not stimulate HLI to prepare qualified and competitive specialists.Fourthly, the bill does not envisage a single norm ensuring professors and students upward mobility as it does not give them an opportunity to integrate into the European and global system of education.Fifthly, the bill does not contain a single reference to a loan module system that is one of the integral elements in the Bologna Process. On the whole, the bill preserves the Ukrainian system of higher education and in several aspects even further alienates it from European standards.The adoption of the aforementioned bill will also have a negative impact on students. The bill’s provision stipulating that tuitions may be indexed according to the level of inflation over the entire period of study drew the greatest criticism of students. Taking into account that Ukrainian legislation does not factor in the notion of an inflation coefficient, HLI have “carte blanche” to raise tuition for studying several times and without substantiation.Aside from that, the proposed scheme of acceptance to HLI elicits serious observations. On the one hand, the bill envisages a guarantee of acceptance of students that studied under forms of education other than daily to the first year of university on a tuition-free basis.On the other hand, the bill sets the criteria for acceptance of first-year students not only on the basis of the results according to the EIG system, but also stipulates the possibility of accepting them without a tender. Experts believe this creates conditions for the emergence of corruption schemes in the process of applying to HLI and violates the equal rights of applicants.The self-government of students may also be threatened, seeing as the new bill does not include the norm of the existing law on financing its bodies in the amount of no less than 0.5% of the special fund of the corresponding HLI. Given this, the bill fundamentally limits the rights of applicants and students, which in the end could deprive many of them of the possibility of a university education. Conclusions and recommendationsIn conclusion, the bill “On Higher Education” drafted by the Ministry of Education and Science submitted to the parliament by members of the Party of Regions is incapable of reforming the existing system of higher education and instead preserves it even more and fundamentally limits the autonomy of HLI and students’ rights.While the refusal of the parliamentary committee to put the bill up for consideration in the Verkhovna Rada was a major victory for opponents to the bill, it is difficult to be certain that the bill will not be put up for voting in the parliament in the near future.Given that Bill No. 7486-1 is replete with flaws, the most optimal solution to the problem is to draft a new bill that will take into consideration all expert observations. Otherwise, the VR Committee on Education and Science Issues should organize truly open public hearings regarding the bill in which representatives of all sides – the Ministry of Education and Science, Youth and Sports, HLI and student and non-government organizations – would participate on equal terms and grounds.Based on the results of such hearings, serious amendments that would foster the harmonization of higher education in Ukraine with European standards should be included in the corresponding bill. “Focus on Ukraine” – a weekly publication of the Democratic Initiatives Foundation that offers insight into the main political events in Ukraine, as well as commentary and recommendations of experts in a narrow field. Experts: Liliya Grynevych Lesya OrobecАnalysts: Iryna Bekeshkina Oleksij Sydorchuk Natalya Yakymchuk (Project Coordinator)Editor-in-chief: Iryna FilipchukThe “Focus on Ukraine” is published by the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation (DIF) as part of its project implemented under Ukraine National Initiatives to Enhance Reforms (UNITER) program, which is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by Pact Inc. This information product is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents of the publication are the responsibility of DIF and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID, Pact Inc. or the United States Government. 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