Educators and researchers report systemic violations of their rights as a result of several recent initiatives of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (MES), supported by the government. According to them, the changes threaten to increase the shortage of professional staff in technical and engineering fields.
“Postgraduates, higher education institutions in court proceedings, are forced to defend their legal and constitutional rights and freedoms, due to another attempt by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine to reorganize educational processes and educational institutions, to reduce the number of universities and to introduce additional control measures not provided for by the laws and the Constitution of Ukraine, which leads to violations of the constitutional rights and freedoms of educators, scientists, children and youth, in that part which cannot be restricted during the legal regime of martial law, in accordance with the Constitution of Ukraine,” said postgraduate student, head of the charitable organization “Charitable Foundation ‘Change Our Lives’” Roman Serhiyenko at a press conference at the “Interfax-Ukraine” agency.
According to Serhiyenko, the adopted Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers No. 426 of April 8 gave MES the right to amend the procedure for training applicants for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and Doctor of Sciences. This creates grounds for the expulsion of postgraduate students even if they successfully fulfill their educational and research requirements.
“According to the response letters of MES No.1/8845-24 dated 20.05.2024 and the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine No.81631/C – 18859/7.2.4 dated 31.05.2024, these initiatives did not undergo legal and anti-discrimination examination of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine and were returned by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to MES, as indicated in the response to the lawyer’s request No.1/16685-24 dated 13.09.2024, signed by Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine Mr. Vynnytskyi,” – the Serhiyenko press release states.
In addition to educators, members of parliament also opposed the reorganization, organizing the collection of signatures under a collective appeal to the Prime Minister demanding the cancellation of “changes aimed at depriving citizens of Ukraine of their constitutional rights and freedoms.”
The participants of the event called to:
ban the reorganization and liquidation of educational institutions for at least three years after the end of the war/martial law;
ban the transfer of educational institutions for lease as a single property complex;
ban the sale of property of educational institutions;
change the conditions of the competition for the position of head of an educational institution and limit the term of holding the position.
The press conference was also attended by: head of the Council of Higher Education Applicants, Doctor of Philosophy of NTU “Dnipro Polytechnic” Yelyzaveta Bodriaho; teacher of professional-theoretical training of the State Vocational School “Higher Vocational School No.8 in Stryi” Anatolii Kryvosheiev; head of the legal department of Tavria National University named after V. I. Vernadskyi, Vadym Rykov.
