The Minister of Culture and Information, Maja Gojković, and the Minister for European Integration, Jadranka Joksimović, were elected members of the Council of the Faculty of Political Science (FPN) during the last session of the Government of Serbia.
Although the Law on Higher Education provides for the possibility for the government to appoint the members of the Council of a state higher education institution, nowhere does the law state that they can be party officials or ministers, but should rather be prominent figures “in science, education, art and economy”, reports Nova.rs.
By government decision four days ago, Aleksandar Timofejev, Sreten Vujović and Galina Ognjanov were ousted from the Council of the Faculty of Political Science (FPN). At the same time, eight other members have been appointed to that body, including Maja Gojković and Jadranka Joksimović, both senior officials of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) and government ministers.
The Council is the Faculty’s governing body, which adopts the Faculty’s Statute, elects and revokes the mandate of the Dean, adopts financial plans and use of funds for investments, as well as approves decisions on the management of the Faculty’s assets, provides funds for the amount of tuition fees, etc.
It is not known on what basis Gojković and Joksimović were elected, since the appointment of state and party officials as members of the Council of state faculties is not prescribed in the Law on Higher Education, which clearly states that the members of the Council of a higher education institution which is founded by state are appointed by the government, but they should be “prominent figures from the field of science, culture, education, art or economy”.
At the same session of the Serbian government, the new members of the Council of the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in Kragujevac and the Faculty of Philology in Belgrade were appointed, none of them government ministers.
(N1, 14.04.2021)
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