CROATIA: University legislation ignites stormy debate

Over the past few months, the academic and scientific communities of Croatia have been voicing displeasure with proposed revisions to national legislation governing the country's universities and science organisations, writes Mico Tatalovic for Science. Critics have argued that the changes would take away university autonomy and freedom of scientific expression because universities and research priorities would come under direct governmental control.

The trio of new policies, unveiled by the Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Sports on 12 October, would replace the current 2003 Science and Higher Education Bill, which is seen widely as needing improvement. But both the content and the timing of the proposed changes came as a surprise to many researchers and academics.

The new government bills were rejected by the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, which concluded that the proposed changes were "not acceptable" in a 10 November letter to Croatia's science minister, Radovan Fuchs.
Full report on the Science site