EDUCATION Minister Ján Mikolaj believes that there will be fewer universities in Slovakia in the future. He thinks that after completion of the current accreditation process, which all 19 universities are having to undergo, their number will shrink, the SITA newswire wrote.
"I personally think that schools which have problems meeting the criteria will join stronger ones, those with higher quality," said Mikolaj after the ceremonial opening of the academic year at the Slovak Technical University in Bratislava.
The accreditation commission should complete its work by September next year.
Prime Minister Robert Fico has also expressed doubts about the high number of universities in Slovakia.
“Is it effective to have a university in almost each district capital?” asked Fico in early September when appointing new members of the accreditation commission. According to him, it is sad that Slovak universities are unable to compete even within the Visegrad Four (which groups the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia). He thinks allocating money to universities on the basis of the results they achieve in science might increase their quality.
