UNMIK/FR/069/01
Opinion
Higher education for Kosovo Serbs
needs coordination not co-decision
Michael Daxner, the University of Pristina International Administrator and Co-Head of the Department of Education and Science argues that UNMIK higher education policies have the best interests of Kosovo Serb students at heart.
UNMIK wants the best education for all the inhabitants of Kosovo. It
particularly wants the best education for Kosovo Serbs-not because it
favours Serbs over any other Kosovo community, but because it wants Serbs
to stay in the territory and, in the case of displaced Serbs, to return
to it. Everywhere in the western world access to good education at all
levels is a major factor in people's decision over where they decide to
live. It is clearly in the international community's interest, through
UNMIK, to ensure such access.
The best education, on the other hand, is depoliticised education, something
that has certainly never held sway in Kosovo within living memory. The
great disappointment of the past two weeks, therefore, was the sudden
appearance of politics with a very large 'P'. It was a major setback-unravelling
six months of confidence building and cooperation between UNMIK and the
Republic of Serbia on educational issues. It stemmed from a brand of politics,
moreover, that appears neither to understand the real issues of higher
education provision, nor to represent the best interests of Kosovo Serb
students.
To outsiders, perhaps, the move seemed innocent. The protagonists of the
so-called "Banished University of Pristina in Exile" persuaded
their supporters in the Serbian parliament, who in turn told the Government,
to demand that these non-recognized faculties of the former University
of Pristina return to Kosovo. Kosovo Serb institutions for Kosovo Serbs
sounds good on paper: it is also UNMIK policy- provided they are UNMIK-run.
Unfortunately the terms on which they would come back to Kosovo are known
and, because of the provision of Security Council resolution 1244, unacceptable
to UNMIK. The reason is that they would not be "UNMIK-run".
UNMIK alone has the authority for civil administration, and education
is part of that. I made this clear to the former Serbian Vice-Rector of
Pristina University in early 2000: the faculties that had relocated to
Krushevc/Krusevac, Serbia were welcome within the system, but not welcome
if they wanted to be outside it. What it comes down to now is recognition
of resolution 1244. Resolution 1244 is accepted as the framework for what
happens here not only by the FRY and Serbian governments but also the
recently appointed Joint Coordination Centre for Kosovo under Deputy Prime
Minister of Serbia, Dr. Nebjosa Covic. It is apparently still not accepted
by Krusevac group and at least some members of the Serbian Parliament.
Right to higher education
The Serbian parliament decision was therefore a major setback for Kosovo
Serb students, whose fundamental right to access to higher education,
UNMIK fully recognizes.
UNMIK also recognizes the issues that come with ensuring that such as
right can be exercised, namely that Serb students who graduate from Kosovo's
high schools also belong to a community that has no real chance to study
in an appropriate way in the university in Pristina at this time. In this
context, I do accept the honesty of Kosovo Albanians who say there should
indeed be a day when Serb students study again in Pristina. But for the
time being this is impossible. There is not even a half way compromise.
There is no Slavic language department in the university, no readiness,
in fact, to guarantee more than the formal right to admission of Kosovo
Serb students. The Kosovo Serb student's right to higher education as
a general basic right must therefore be separated from the right visit
a certain institution at a certain at a certain time under certain conditions.
(This is also true for other non-majority communities in Kosovo, and for
many countries in Europe where Universities mitigate the problem with
language course and catch-up programmes.)
Here is Kosovo, in the meantime there has to be specific provision by
the Administration in the form of separate UNMIK-run higher education
institutions for Kosovo Serb students. What those students do not need
is external guidance or patronage, either of the governments in Belgrade
or of a university in exile whose only agenda is to re-establish itself
in Kosovo.
For Kosovo Serbs, it will certainly be the best solution to do many things
in Kosovo, including studying here insofar as resources allow. This is
why UNMIK, agrees that it must provide some Serbian higher education institutions
for the Kosovo Serbs graduating from high schools. What it cannot agree
to is that these higher education institutions operate under any authority
outside UNMIK.
UNMIK policy
Backed by European organizations such as the European University Association
and TEMPUS, the most prestigious and effective EU programme for higher
education, UNMIK pursues a realistic strategy of "two institutions
under one (UNMIK) roof" - a practical alternative to the moot idea
that Serb students would be welcome in Pristina. The model for such institutions
is already to hand in the form of the cooperation and coordination with
the University of Pristina mining faculty in Mitrovica North, the Institute
for Serbian History and Culture in Leposaviq/Leposavic and the training
facility under construction in Çaglavicë/Caglavica (near Gracanica)
to serve the enclaves. Kosovo Serbs have also begun to be included in
the Department of Education and Sciences' advanced teacher-training programmes.
With the encouragement of the Serbian Ministry of Education and Sports,
negotiations with the deans of the so-far unrecognised former University
of Pristina faculties in Mitrovica North reached an understanding on refurbishing
some of their premises, and which sections would remain in Kosovo (and
which should stay in Serbia under arrangements with the Universities of
Kragujevac, Nis and Belgrade). Like many teachers at secondary education
level, the deans also expressed interest in signing UNMIK contracts. In
Belgrade UNMIK began discussions on the establishment of a 'university
of applied science'-the European term for a mainly technical 3-year college.
All such discussions are built on the proposition that, while resolution
1244 requires higher education institutions to be under UNMIK's undivided
authority, they will also have to be run in close consultation with Belgrade.
The degrees they award must be recognized by the governments in Belgrade
and also by the Yugoslav labour market, which for the present is the only
one in the region that Kosovo Serbs can go to.
Another area for cooperation and coordination recognizes that while Kosovo
Serb students have the right, it is not an unlimited right to all kinds
of higher education. No administration anywhere can respond to every dimension
of that right.: it is normal for students go to where the supply is. Even
in university systems where there are many competing institutions, not
everything can be studied in one university. A territory like Kosovo will
never be able to serve all needs in higher education.
But if there are things that cannot be done here at the level of European
standards, their would-be students would have to go abroad anyway. And
at the moment it is more likely they will go to Serbia than to any other
part of the Balkans. Which is why UNMIK has been coordinating the issue
with the government in Belgrade.
No parallel systems
What UNMIK never negotiated was the idea that Belgrade should take the
lead on their own institutions in Kosovo. This is because, under resolution
1244 they may not have their 'own'institutions. We have been talking about
coordination not co-decision- an exchange and an orderly division of labour
to give Kosovo Serbs students the most important thing, namely is to enter
higher education after high school graduation.
Our impression was that the Belgrade recognized that Kosovo cannot afford
to suffer another parallel system-this time under reversed indicators.
Kosovo Serbs will benefit most when staffing, alignment with appointment
rules, teacher training, contracts and payments come under one Kosovo
administration. Their education specialists were correspondingly reluctant
to support a parallel higher education system based around the former
University of Pristina faculties that relocated to Krushevc/Krusevac.
Unreconstructed even today, the Krushevc/Krusevac group stems from the
pre-democratic days- part of the old pro-Milosevic university-and now
want to come back.
The success of that group in attracting the support of hardliners in the
Serbian parliament is perhaps not surprising. But it sets the negotiations
between Belgrade and Pristina back six months at a crucial time leading
up to UNMIK's transfer of many administrative responsibilities to an elected
self-government.
Instead of repeating the whole process of confidence building with former
University of Pristina faculties that were interested in cooperating with
UNMIK, we should have been exploring other multi-college university systems
in Europe, for example London University. For a model where colleges or
campuses are distinguished by the teaching language we could look at one
system where there is a language divide within one national system (and
everyone was also very sceptical in the beginning) namely the Belgian
experience.
I am not against such things, I am only against two extremes: the one
is co-governance with Belgrade through a parallel system, which as I have
explained, resolution 1244 rules out; the other that the University of
Pristina, as it is now, exercise rights over Kosovo Serbs higher education
institutions, which is impractical- a Rector in Pristina would not be
able to function as chief of an institution in Mitrovica North.
When it comes to including Kosovo in regional aid programmes and involving
higher education institutions in cooperation networks, the international
community will measure what happens here by whether and how it will comply
with the basic rules of cultural and educational conventions, the supra-national
modes of recognition and quality assurance. "European standards"
will apply throughout Europe. Only inside that framework will the respective
entitities of ethnic, religious and other groups find their way to develop
and compete for the recognition of their own members. In the case of higher
education, young people are in the spotlight: their rights and their future.
Contact: S. Vinogradov
(038) 504 604 Ext. 5528
E-mail: vinogradov@un.org
Note for editors
The full document may be consulted online in English at http://www.unmik.org/. Albanian and Serbian
versions can be provided.
For a selection of photographs, please contact Mr Ky Chung at 038 504-604 ext. 5467