Financing for higher education establishments will not be cut after their re-subordination to the Education and Science, Youth and Sports Ministry of Ukraine, but at the same time it will not sharply increase, Ukrainian Education Minister Dmytro Tabachnyk has told Interfax-Ukraine.
"Of course after the transfer the financing will not increase, but on the other side we are trying to help universities to develop and open up new specialties, new training directions. I am sure this will not cause damage. [Financing] will not be cut by even a hryvnia, but I would not confidently promise that it would increase," he said.
Tabachnyk added that from the point of view of higher education development, quality control, equal licensing and accreditation conditions, it was "not normal" that higher education establishments were subordinated to different central authorities.
He said that during work of the government headed by Premier Mykola Azarov, some 30 universities subordinated to different state agencies have been handed over to the Education Ministry.
"The universities’ autonomy, the number of lecturers and even financing has not changed, because the universities were transferred with the same budget financing as they had before," the minister said.
