Students Protest High Tuition Fees

Euro Blic

28 September 2004

The students at the Banja Luka University will organize a protest rally in front of the University Campus in Banja Luka, to express their anger over the increased tuition fees. The protest will start at noon. After they gather at the Campus, the students will take a protest walk through the centre of the city.

The main reason for the protests is the increase in the tuition fees to 600 KM for a year of study, which the majority of students find inacceptable, having in mind the critical financial status they find themselves in. In return, there is no improvement in terms of better study and working conditions.

�The students simply cannot afford to themselves to reach deeper in the pockets of their parents. We cant take any more lies and we won�t accept to be ignorred�, we were told at the Banja Luka Students� Organization.

At the press conference held yesterday, Kristina Pantelic from the Assembly of the Student Organization said that the students have addressed the Ministry of Education and Culture of Republic of Srpska in July of this year, and requested several meetings with Minister Gojko Savanovic, which were �continuously ignorred.�

The students invited the highest dignitaries of the Republic of Srpska to joint them in the protests, together with their colleagues from teh University of Srpsko Sarajevo.

Duska Golic, Spokeswoman of the Ministry of Education, said that the Government will review the changes in the entry policies at the Universities only after the completion of the proper procedure for such an initiative.