Students go on hunger strike to demand increased rights (10/30/05)

Students go on hunger strike to demand increased rights

by Yana Sedova
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - A student hunger strike, which resulted in the hospitalization of its leader, convinced Ukraine's Ministry of Education and Science to yield to students' demands for increased rights.

After eight days of protests in front of the ministry building and the Presidential Secretariat, 20 students launched the hunger strike on October 10, led by Oleh Yatsenko, the chair of Studentske Bratstvo, a Ukrainian youth civic organization.

Mr. Yatsenko was hospitalized on October 13 due to concerns about a potential heart attack. The same evening, Vice Minister of Education and Science Mykhailo Stepko announced the Ministry would comply with Studentske Bratstvo's five demands.

"Our dialogue with officials lasted six months," Mr. Yatsenko said at an October 17 press conference. "We stressed that we didn't plan any street demonstrations, with the hope that all our concerns would be resolved in response to our appeals."

However, the five demands set by students at the Ukrainian Students Forum on June 27-28 failed to get any reaction from the ministry, Mr. Yatsenko said.

In their most critical demand, students asked President Viktor Yushchenko not to sign the bill "About Higher Education" because of three amendments that violate students' rights, Mr. Yatsenko said.

The first amendment imposes a mandatory three-year state assignment for graduates who studied in institutes and universities on government scholarships. This amendment was intended to force students to work in undesirable towns and villages in Ukraine. If a student rejects the assignment, he or she may be forced to repay the scholarship.

Another amendment gives private universities the right to raise tuition payments based on fluctuations in the dollar-hryvnia exchange rate. Activists were concerned that this might cause unjustified tuition hikes and strike hardest at students who barely find money to pay for their education.

The third amendment conflicted, activists said, with the Bologna Process, a European Union project launched by Great Britain, Germany, France and Italy in May 1998, that seeks to create a unified European system of higher education starting in 2010. Ukraine joined the Bologna Process on May 19, agreeing to its obligations.

Among the requirements is that student council representatives have a 10 percent voting stake in university councils.

"Ukraine has to follow its obligations," Mr. Yatsenko said. "However, the new bill provides only an advisory status for student council leaders."

Studentske Bratstvo also demanded public transportation discounts for summer sessions and timely distribution of student identification cards in order to obtain these benefits.

Among their most controversial demands is prohibition of fines for missed classes, which university rectors staunchly oppose. Though the ministry agreed to forbid the collection of fines for missed classes, some rectors still openly say that they will keep fining students, said Anastasia Khoniakina, the press secretary of Studentske Bratstvo.

Rectors claim the fines are necessary to force students to attend classes, however, some students end up paying more for missed classes than the tuition for the classes themselves.

In his letter to students, Mr. Stepko announced that a Ministry commission also had examined corruption allegations made against Ruslan Postolovskyi, the rector of Rivne State Humanitarian University.

In addition to leading a government university, Mr. Postolovskyi also owns and serves as rector of the Rivne Institute of Slavic Studies.

Studentske Bratstvo alleged that Mr. Postolovskyi rented dormitory rooms in the public university to those attending the private university he owns. As a result, those attending the Rivne State Humanitarian University had no place to live.

The Ministry of Education and Science ordered Mr. Postolovskyi to meet the demands of Studentske Bratstvo that he end his corrupt activities within a month.

As part of its campaign, Studentske Bratstvo demanded the resignation of Mr. Postolovskyi and Vasyl Yakovets, the rector of Nizhen State University.

The student activists allege that both rectors pressured students to support and vote for presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych.

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