The FINANCIAL — Science, Education, Youth, and Sports Minister Dmytro Tabachnyk has said that his ministry has not proposed legislation aimed at raising tuition fees in higher education institutions.
Tabachnyk was speaking on the "Big Politics with Yevgeny Kiselyov" program on the Inter television channel on February 4.
"The ministry's draft of the law (on higher education) does not provide – and all students should know this – for raising tuition fees," Tabachnyk said.
According to Tabachnyk, if the Verkhovna Rada supports the ministry's legislative proposals, tuition fees in higher education institutions can be reduced through merger of schools, which would result in reduction of administrative costs.
Moreover, according to the minister, the draft law that the ministry is preparing provides for significant expansion of the autonomy of higher education institutions and a number of other provisions that will help to bring Ukrainian higher education system closer to international standards.
Moreover, he said that the criticism of the draft law being prepared by the ministry was unjustified at least for the reason that the work on it has not yet been completed and none of its opponents can know the contents of the final version of this document.
At the same time, according to the minister, the existence of several versions of the new law "On Higher Education" proposed by parliamentary deputies demonstrates the need for change in higher education.
According to Tabachnyk, the existence of different visions of the problems and various legislative proposals on sensitive issues is normal practice in a civilized society.
At the same time, Tabachnyk said that the versions of the law "On Higher Education" proposed by parliamentary deputies, particularly the version proposed by Parliamentary Deputy Yurii Miroshnychenko (Party of the Regions faction) have several disadvantages.
As Ukrainian News earlier reported, the Presidential Administration's deputy head Hanna Herman recently ruled out the possibility of President Viktor Yanukovych approving the Education Ministry's version of the draft law on higher education if it provides for classifying higher education institutions based on the number of students in them and said that possible introduction of advance payment for the entire period of study in a higher education institutions is unacceptable.
The Education Ministry intends to finalize the draft law on higher education before April.
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