When deciding whether to sign the bill on higher education, President Gjorgje Ivanov will perform as a statesman, not a teacher. He communicated this to the representatives of the professorial and the student plenum at today’s meeting, on which they asked him to veto the amendments.
At the meeting with Ivanov, which lasted one hour and twenty minutes, there were two representatives from the plenums – students Konstantin Bitrakov and Kiril Arsovski and professors Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova and Abdulmenaf Bedxheti.
President Ivanov said that the Republic of Macedonia needs successful transformation of higher education and expressed concern about the tendency of the divisions in the academic community. He appealed to unity and dialogue to overcome the current situation and proposed a joint meeting with representatives of “Professorial plenum”, “Student plenum” and the Civil Initiative to support knowledge in higher education.
The plenums hope that once they’ve presented their arguments to the President, he will use the presidential veto as the only mechanism for the influence of the executive power over the legislature.
– We are aware that the parliamentary majority would not be prevented from passing the law by an absolute majority, but there is hope that it will commit a primarily moral and political influence on the President, as a body which draws its legitimacy from the people, towards the MPs, which will determine that the President would defend the university and its autonomy – said student Konstantin Bitrakov.
The arguments which students presented to Ivanov are that the state exam violates the autonomy of the university and that they were often presented through letters to the relevant institutions.
– We agreed that there should be changes and reforms in education, but not the way they are now presented to us and we hope that the President will give a positive assessment of that what we have now presented – said student Kiril Arsovski.
The professors said they have indicated some of the solutions that are not within the autonomy and that submitted all documents proving it to President Ivanov.
