Pan-European University (source: SITA)
The Bratislava Regional Court annulled all decisions made by former education minister Juraj Draxler on removing the accreditation of the private Pan-European University (PEVŠ) in Bratislava on May 31.
“In other words, the court fully complied with our suit. I want to say with satisfaction that after one year of efforts we’ve achieved a result that we’d been expecting from the very first day,” PEVŠ’s Law Faculty dean Jaroslav Ivor said, as quoted by the TASR newswire. “We believe that the truth has won via this decision.”
At the same time Ivor stressed that Draxler’s decision from May 2015 significantly damaged PEVŠ, which was forbidden from accepting any new students both for bachelor’s and master’s degrees as of the autumn. Even though an injunction later suspended this ban and entrance exams were organised after all in September, the university estimates that the uncertainty caused a slump in applicants of 30-40 percent.
“PEVŠ is a private university ... we don’t get even a single cent from the state budget,” said Ivor, as quoted by TASR, adding that the university viewed Draxler’s decision as ruinous.
Draxler last year acted according to the results of an inspection carried out by an accreditation committee that found that the university was observing a study programme under different conditions from the ones for which it was accredited. The institution corrected the shortcomings soon after and asked the ministry to revoke the decision. After a lack of communication by the Education Ministry the university took the matter to Bratislava Regional Court, TASR wrote.
