Categories
Journalistic Survey
Articles
Reportage
Analitic
Photo Reportage
Exclusive
Interview
Foreign Media about Georgia
Editorial
Position
Reader's opinion
Blog
Themes
Children's Rights
Women's Rights
Justice
Refugees/IDPs
Minorities
Media
Army
Health
Corruption
Elections
Education
Penitentiary
Religion
Others

No Pay No PhD Education, Policy Hinders Educational and Research Process

June 23, 2008

What will be better for the university and what is the Education Ministry doing about it?
Eka Kevanishvili, Tbilisi

Some of the aspects on which the present state universities in Georgia are starting to function, are completely unacceptable with the point of view of sound reforms to be carried out for creating the knowledge-based economy in Georgia. A doctor’s degree is free in the systems focused on market economy, such as American educational system. The reason for this decision is the fact that during doctor’s degree a person does not receive a new education, or they just produce new knowledge; and the state or different corporations are greatly interested to support them,” Lela Samniashvili, an education expert, made such an assessment based on concrete facts that she recalled. State University left many post-graduates in an obscure situation. 

Those, who hoped that having graduated the post-graduate course they entered free doctor’s degree, suddenly discovered that they had to pay 1 000 GEL for each academic term.

For example, Natia Natsvlishvili, student working for doctor’s degree at the University, who entered the doctor’s degree in autumn of 2007, learned in May 2008 that she and her colleagues had to pay 4,200 GEL for the degree program. These people cannot understand why the university administration has suddenly fixed such a large payment to study in a sector that was free when they first entered.

“Students for Doctor’s Degree during Transitive Period”

Natia Natsvlishvili: “When I graduated with master’s degree, I entered the billings department of the post-graduate course. This was at the time when reform of the educational system had first started and everybody suggested to begin working on my master’s degree with the onset of educational reform in the sphere of higher education. They claimed my degree would be more valuable under the new system. I then applied for the master’s degree and expected that it was going to be free. However, soon they reversed their decision and based the amount of money they wanted on the following calculations: the post-graduate course was equal to 60 credits and 120 credits were fixed on what was the cost of a master’s program. The cost for one credit was 35 GEL and the total sum added up to 4,200 GEL.  I had to pay that amount of money for nothing. Short time later they introduced some changes and announced to us to submit our dissertations before October 2008 and we would be discharged from the payment. After October one term of the master’s degree costs 1,000 GEL.

I had needed to do nothing more at the university; I just had to work on my essay.”

Diana Anfimiadi, another student for master’s degree tells the same story:

“The first violation in the decision was the fact that Gia Khubua, the University rector, passed the resolution aboaut paid education and this was without having discussed the issue with the academic council. Not to mention that, the worse violation is the fact that a student takes exams for a course that was free. Only later it was learned that tuition must be paid.”

“The philological faculty fought for keeping the master’s degree free; however the necessary funds for the education were not allocated by the rector. However, the faculty distributed funds from its own budget. Finally, we learned that only first term was funded and that term was from May 14 (the date of our registration) to July 14.”

“We did not do anything during that period of time; however, they somehow concluded that we had earned 30 credits.”

Lawyer Keti Mekhuzla defined that the Law on Higher Education regarding the payment of the doctor’s degree, contains a transitive resolution (Article 88) which states that the new financial rule should have been prepared by the Ministry of Education in 2007. However, the procedure has not proceeded according to schedule. The representatives of the Legal Department of the Ministry stated they did not have authority to resolve the financial issue for the doctor’s degree program. The university has complete autonomy in this direction. Mekhuzla stated that according to the current law, it is left to the university as how it wants to decide whether the doctor’s degree will be a free program or if tuition must be paid or not.

“The conditions are defined in the contract and students for the doctor’s degree know about them; they should know from the very beginning whether their degree will be free or paid. The violation is that the university abuses its autonomy and fixes the payment in a selfish manner. If the contract does not contain such an agreement, then it contradicts existing law and the student can appeal against it.”

Officials of the Legal Department of the Ministry also stated that there is the Georgian National Science Foundation and that it announced a competition for grants and that interested people were able to apply for these grants.

However, the students for master’s degree, who were deceived, cannot find relief in such an offer. In fact, the university partially gave in before, and students were given an extended deadline to apply before October.

The Resolution # 88 of the University Academic Council states:

“Students for doctor’s degree in transitive period shall pay 1,000 GEL for each academic term.
Students who started master’s degree in 2007-2008 shall be discharged from the payment up until October of 2008.Students who will apply for master’s degree in 2008-2009 in transitive period shall be discharged from the payment for the first term.

If dissertation council does not accept essays from students of master’s degree before the above-mentioned deadline, student shall continue to study at their own expense,” and Gia Khubua signed the mentioned resolution.

Master degree students stated that many professors moved to Ilia Chavchavadze State University from Javakhishvili State University in the last several months. The reason for their decision was high salaries in the Chavchavadze University. Students expect that soon everybody will abandon Javakhishvili University and it will not have any staff to really boast about when it comes to carrying out research, as it will no longer be carried out at the philological faculty as it has been traditionally done.

“I graduated from the master’s degree three-four years ago and now when I visit the university I observe that there is a serious gap between old and current university. It appears that no progress has been made there in recent times. I studied at the Culture Institute and it seemed like a technical college in comparison with the university; but now the situation is vice versa,” complained one of the students for master’s degree.

There is constant controversy over the funding of master’s degree at the university.

Professor Elguja Khintibidze is one of those who contradict the concept of paid tuition. He said the changes and reform in the educational system brought about many surprises and related problems. Among these is the topic of doctor’s degree.

“As a result of the reform the post-graduate course was abolished at the university; the graduates of the master’s degree should then continue their studies at doctor’s degree. Now it contains both academic activities and tuition process too; the student should earn an estimated number of credits.”

“The students who had taken the post-graduate course before the reform faced difficulties. They finished the studies without having earned a degree. The council stopped working and we could not discuss the essays they submitted, as we had no right to do that and we did not have the authority to grant degrees to the students. The described situation has created some rather serious problems.”

“It became obvious that the university cannot fund the doctor’s degree. Argument over the issue still continues and the financial department states they cannot find enough resources. However, I demand that doctorate’s degree should be free as Georgia should prepare a new generation of qualified specialists. At least some faculties should be allowed to operate for free. The state should choose its priorities and fund the doctor’s degree for that field. For example, in philology students might not wish to apply for master’s degree but does the state really need it, and what should be considered is that there are prestigious scientific fields and the state should protect these programs and provide the opportunity for new graduates at the highest level. 

“Unfortunately, I cannot make more thorough analyze how the payment amount was estimated or why the faculty cannot be free-of-charge. The Academic Council and Council of Representatives are in charge of running the university; I am not member of any of these bodies; so I cannot comment about financial matters.”

“All lecturers of the philological faculty and I claim that the doctor’s degree must be free, and this should be at least provided for those who entered the degree before the reform of higher education. We have protested the decision several times but the Academic Council did not consider our request; they just offered a small advantage that is written in Rector’s resolution # 88.”

If situation continues the university will be research free

Lela Samniashvili considers that “based on higher education policy, the actual situation in the field in Georgia is completely unacceptable. Doctor’s degree is free in the systems focused on market economy, such as in the American educational system. The reason for such a decision is that during doctor’s degree a person does not receive new education, and this kind of student is to produce new and cutting-edge information. This process is very important because based on mental resources, as not everybody is able to carry out high level research and it does not depend on the financial abilities of the person but on intellectual ability. You can pay for bachelor’s degree to get education but then the state must be eager to fund and employ talented people. Doctors teach at proper universities and obtain money for that service. Alternatively, they receive funds from various foundations or governments.”
Today, when we are joining the Europe and participate in the process of Bolonia the system is focused on the maintenance of national systems of high education. In Europe, the states try to fund as many researches as possible. But we face the danger that our country will lose even more mental resources in near future.

“The state should turn at least two or three universities into strong research universities. Or priority fields should be outlined. If the state does not need 20 doctors in philology it should not have them, but have to support at least five doctors in such fields where we always had famous and talented specialists: math, philology etc.”

If the tuition procedure at the doctor’s degree is not reconsidered, Lela Samniashvili supposes that Georgian universities will soon eliminate the third and final stage of education. They will turn into provincial universities where no research works will be carried out, and this is far from educational reform.

By the way, the doctor’s degree is free at the Chavchavadze State University, located not far from Javakhishvili University. In addition, many professors moved to the Chavchavadze University which recently combined many faculties according to the government’s decision. Consequently, there is a question whether certain people have tried to discredit the academic integrity of Javakhishvili University.

News