Approximately one thousand students, members of academia and the public gathered in the streets to voice their disapproval of the university reform currently in the pipeline. In their so called 'Responsible Protest for Free Universities', they donned yellow respirators and held yellow balloons. The protesters stated that the bill does not address the brain drain, is unsystematic, inconsistent, with some claiming that it politicised academia and put academic freedoms in jeopardy.
According to Council of Universities president Martin Putala, the fundamental problem is that the ministry ignores comments from academia and fails to consult the legislation with the parties involved. A protest petition has also been launched and has garnered about 17,000 signatures to date.
The loudest complaints concern the election of university rectors and the standing of deans, the proposed restriction of the powers of academic senates, changes to accreditation processes and re-allocation of resources, originally earmarked for public universities, to private universities.
Mikuláš Luptáčik, former dean of the University of Economics in Bratislava is one of the supporters of reform. He said for the DenníkN daily that the Slovak Universities are too closed because of the current election process.
