THE RECTOR of the University of Alexander Dubček in Trenčín (TnUAD), Miroslav Mečár, submitted his resignation to Education Minister Ján Mikolaj on January 19, several months after a scandal over questionable diplomas awarded by the university hit media headlines.
Mečár will leave his post on March 1. He announced that he plans to initiate several measures to make the academic senate more effective and to rid the school of several individuals before then, the SITA newswire reported.
Mečár offered his opinion that there are cliques and individuals at the university who initiated a process of self-destruction for TnUAD based on their own narrow-minded and selfish goals and that he plans to get rid of them.
He also said that he was resigning to help calm the situation at the school. But Mečár did not rule out applying for the rector’s post again, SITA wrote.
The academic senate of Trenčín University recalled Mečár on December 7, 2009.
He filed a complaint in court to contest the validity of his recall and of the meeting of the academic senate, alleging factual and procedural errors.
Mečár said that he had filed the lawsuit because the principles of the law on universities had been breached. He also said that a person with a criminal past had presided over the meeting.
An audit of TnUAD conducted by the Education Ministry reported misconduct and violations of the law and procedures of the university within its life-long learning programme. Hundreds of students might now lose their diplomas.
