Mykola Tomenko: Students will no longer tolerate Restriction of their Rights
Today, Mykola Tomenko, Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, opened a round table discussion "The Law of Ukraine "On Higher Education regarding the Student's Self-Government": Results of the Year - Innovations and Scheduled Changes" in the Parliament. He summed up the achievements in the development of student self-government for the past year. Thus, the amendments to the Law of Ukraine "On Higher Education" came into force a year ago. They ordered the student self-government system, enlarged the authorities and functions of the student self-government bodies, fixed the quota for students´ representation in the collegiate bodies of the higher education establishments, etc.
M.Tomenko analyzed how the higher education establishments implemented the Law on the student self-government. According to the data presented by the leading state-owned higher education establishments, 75% of the higher education establishments amended their statutes, 17% - did not amend the statutes, while 8 % - have the amendments being ratified in the Ministry of Education. In general, members of the student boards participate in the academic boards of the universities, and have 11% of votes. More than 2000 students of the higher education establishments with III-IV accreditation levels joined the academic boards of the universities as members. More than 5000 students are delegated to the conferences of the labour collective of the universities, while some of them took part in the election of the rector. The average budget of a student board totals UAH 200 000 per year.
Dwelling upon the work of the student boards, the Deputy Chairman focused on two negative trends: leaders of the higher education establishments allege the lack of interpretation and refuse to fund the student self-government, and the token financial support (the funds allotted for the repairs and the trade unions pass as the funds for the student self-government).
M.Tomenko highlighted the achievements for the past year with account for the fact that most universities were not familiar with the Law a year ago. Thus, in 2010, the Ukrainian Student Self-Government Organization jointly with the Institute of Politics, with the assistance of M.Tomenko Fund "Ridna Kraina" prepared "Methodological Recommendations on the Implementation of the Law "On Higher Education" regarding the student´s self-government."
Summing up, the Deputy Chairman stated that a long way had been covered to strictly regulate the student self-government. Thus, recent initiatives to restrict its authorities stand no chances. "The students will no longer tolerate restriction of their rights," the Deputy Chairman stated.