EurasiaNet Eurasia Insight - Tbilisi University Implements Reforms Aimed at Improving Educational Standards

EURASIA INSIGHT

TBILISI UNIVERSITY IMPLEMENTS REFORMS AIMED AT IMPROVING EDUCATIONAL STANDARDS
Molly Corso 8/17/06

Reforms at Tbilisi State University, including a significant downsizing, are proceeding quietly after provoking an initial storm of protest by faculty members.

Reformers, led by acting university rector Giorgi Khubua, say the changes are essential to ensure the university meets European educational standards, and to safeguard the institution’s autonomy. The protesters, he insists, are �Soviets’ unwilling to move with the times. "The main goal of the reforms is to create a system of education that meets the needs of the students," Khubua said in an interview with EurasiaNet.

The reforms will see up to 1,200 new lecturers recruited, but the overall number of staff slashed from 5,000 to just 800. All but 37 of the 800 staff positions have been filled, and the remaining vacancies are to be filled by the end of August. According to Khubua, there will be roughly one staff member for every 20 students, with roughly 300 positions filled on a contract basis.

Nino Chikovani, dean of the faculty of humanities, said the new staffing procedures were the best way to improve the quality of education at TCU, adding that the previous system had stifled development. "In spite of all of the noise, the reforms are continuing and we hope that reforms will continue until the end. Stopping them is not a possibility. We just came to a point when it was impossible to continue because we were falling behind," she said.

But unhappy professors, who have been engaged in a simmering, headline-grabbing revolt for months, insist the staff cuts are an attempt to rid the university of its political identity, and to pack classrooms with loyalists of President Mikhail Saakashvili’s administration. "It looks like it [the downsizing] was an attempt to create a loyal cadre, where professional requirements took second place," said Shota Vashakidze, a professor at the university.

Lari Kugadze, a physics professor who was among the leaders of the recent anti-reform protests, expressed concern that the university had been stripped of its independence. "Basically the root of our concerns is [the autonomy issue]," he said. It has become clear, he added, that "people invited from the outside will come and determine the order of things in the university."

Earlier this summer, the university was engulfed in turmoil. Kugadze along with other teachers and members of the opposition tried to reinstate the former ruling council of the university, the Grand Science Council, and force Khubua to resign. The attempted revolt was squashed when Khubua called the police to remove the protestors and restore order. For days following the disturbance, scores of opposition leaders and protesters surrounded the university. However Khubua refused to engage in negotiations, and, eventually, the protest lost momentum.

Giorgi Meladze, a program director at the Liberty Institute, one of the NGOs driving educational overhaul, said the reforms are the only way to guarantee that Georgian students will receive a worthwhile education, and that the university stays independent. "This mythical autonomy that the professors are talking about was just that � a myth," he said. "After the transition, the university will really be autonomous, and self appoint its rector." The last stage of the reform process, the reorganization of the university’s administrative structure, remains to be implemented, according to Meladze.

Malkhaz Matsaberidze, a political scientist and professor at TSU, said although the university retains an important place in the political culture of Georgia, it has not been autonomous since 1921, when the country became part of the Soviet Union. He downplayed the notion that the recent protests were connected with the autonomy issue, suggesting instead that problems were rooted in domestic politics. "For the opposition of Georgia, it is important to receive a large mass of people on the street who will illustrate its strength," Matsaberidze said.

Khubua portrayed the protest leaders as clinging to their Soviet past and attempting to overturn the democratic changes instituted by the Saakashvili administration. "It is much easier to integrate laws, but to integrate a mentality and thought process is much more difficult. That process starts with the university," Khubua said. "I want to mention again that the protest is much more aggressive now. � They [disgruntled professors] understand that if the Georgian university will be completely integrated with Western universities, this is a huge guarantee that Georgia will never return to its past history."

Editor�s Note: Molly Corso is a freelance journalist and photographer based in Tbilisi.

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