`Students Have Long Since Used Up Their Points`

Students are prepared to sacrifice their personal interests, even lose a year of studies, in order to continue the protest.

ZAGREB, CROATIA – Students of the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb said on Tuesday that they do not support the proposal of the Faculty Council sent to the Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Sport because it is “significantly more restricting than the current model”, adding they will continue protesting, despite possible sanctions.

They were aware of possible sanctions ever since they started the protest, but “many students are prepared to sacrifice their personal interests, even lose a year of studies”, a representative of the student body told a press conference.

The students refused the option of ending the bloc of lectures until the end of week. They started a protest from free education for everyone 30 days ago and blocked lectures from taking place at the faculty. Even when the plenum reaches a decision to lift the bloc, this would not mean capitulation, but one of the strategies, the students pointed out.

Professor Goldstein invites the students to end the protest

History professor at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb Ivo Goldstein assessed the bloc “irresponsible and frivolous”, inviting the students to lift it.

- The students had points which they have long since used up, the protest has lost its purpose, the block was supposed to have been lifted – Goldstein told the Slobodna Dalmacija paper on Tuesday.

Today, they said they do not think those who did not attend lectures at alternative locations would be sanctioned, but the dean has left this decision to the lecturers.

They reminded that one of their conditions for the ban to be lifted was that there would be no sanctions. According to them, the number of professors and students who hold lectures at alternative locations is not big.

The disputable matter of the Faculty Council`s proposal, as the students point out, is that the first enrolment rule was defined, because it includes the option of charging fees during the second enrolment of a faculty; for the option of changing faculty only once, after the first year and that it enables running a payment model which is absolutely contradictive to publically financed education.

The students suggest a free education model according to which there should be no forms of payments and they believe that temporarily depriving students of their students` rights or permanently taking them away would be a sufficient corrective element for not meeting student commitments.