Autonomy of the University in the light of the Framework Law on Higher Education in Bosnia and Herzegovina Cover Image

Autonomija univerziteta u svjetlu Okvirnog zakona o visokom obrazovanju u Bosni i Hercegovini
Autonomy of the University in the light of the Framework Law on Higher Education in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Author(s): Sifet Kukuruz
Subject(s): Education, Public Law, Higher Education , State/Government and Education, Evaluation research
Published by: Fondacija Centar za javno pravo
Keywords: Public law; education; education system; higher education; university; law; framework; autonomy;
Summary/Abstract: This paper deals with the notion of institutional autonomy of higher education institutions and the concept of academic freedom in the light of relevant international documents, state practice in the European Higher Education Area and the Framework Law on Higher Education in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The author's position is that, for understanding these concepts in the Bosnian Herzegovinian public sphere, there is a reductionist and tendentious approach that is neither based on official international documents that deal with higher education nor on legal texts that define and elaborate these concepts. The author points out that these concepts are addressed within the limited consideration of few dimensions or even through the analysis of certain fragments of some of the four dimensions of the autonomy of higher education institutions. The text points to all the harmfulness of the reductionist approach to the understanding of these concepts. Within the context of Bosnia and Herzegovina public discourse, author pays a special attention to the analysis of the structure and competencies of the management structure which is perceived as one of the segments of institutional autonomy of higher education institutions in the public discussions. Upon these analyses a number of conclusions have been drawn related to the degree of institutional autonomy of the university and the achieved degree of academic freedom. These conclusions serve furthermore as a base for the critical attitudes in relation to the normative decisions created by the relevant education authorities in B&H. In this regard, the paper emphasizes the complexity of the notion of institutional autonomy of higher education institutions altogether with a clarification of the four dimensions of this term and defining the indicators upon which the basis of each of the four dimensions of autonomy is presented in the light of practice in EU institutions. In the context of the social significance of higher education, the paper attempts to point out the significant social need for a correct understanding of the notion of institutional autonomy of higher education institutions and academic freedoms that must be based on international documents and relevant legal texts in B&H.

  • Page Count: 23
  • Publication Year: 2017
  • Language: Bosnian