ZAGREB, Oct 28 (Hina) - The Croatian trade union of scientists and university and tertiary education staff has said it supports the government's decision to incorporate Split Polytechnic into Split University. The union added that
university lecturers and professors in the country were wondering why the government and the science ministry had not acted sooner and prevented the creeping aggression of the polytechnic's leaders against the system of science and tertiary education.
ZAGREB, Oct 28 (Hina) - The Croatian trade union of scientists and
university and tertiary education staff has said it supports the
government's decision to incorporate Split Polytechnic into Split
University. The union added that university lecturers and
professors in the country were wondering why the government and the
science ministry had not acted sooner and prevented the creeping
aggression of the polytechnic's leaders against the system of
science and tertiary education. #L#
"Split Polytechnic is the embodiment of everything that tertiary
education in Croatia must not be - an uncontrollable institution
which is not accountable for the quality of the public service it is
providing. It (the polytechnic) functions without approved
curricula and elected lecturers, it does not meet a series of legal
obligations and does not recognise the scientific authorities in
the country. As a result, it represents unfair rather than
desirable competition in the system of higher education," the union
wrote in a press release on Tuesday.
The institution does not behave as an institution of education, but
as a profit-oriented business enterprise, which offers on the
market something which is not traded in a civilised society, namely
education as a human right and public interest.
"While elsewhere in the world students hold protest rallies against
the privatisation of education and for public education, deluded
students in Croatia are doing the opposite. This also testifies to
the immaturity of Croatia's society as well as to the condition of
the system in which students do not understand their own interests
nor the objectives and ideals of the society they live in," the
press release read.
(hina) ms sb