Tabachnyk wipes boots on Ukraine, Rector Vakarchuk says

ZIK/Маріан Стрільців

Down is the full text of Rector and ex-Education Minister Vakarchuk’s statement:

“At the peak of university entrance campaign, when, due to sloppy organization, applicants and their parents were exposed to scorching sun in long lines to submit their documents, the media reported sudden, almost secret dismissals of the rectors of the country’s leading universities, blacked out by the ministry’s website – Volodymyr Shevchenko (Donetsk national university), Valentyn Smyntyna (Odesa Mechnikov University) and Mykhailo Martyniuk (Uman Tychyna University).

Done in this way, the dismissals are unprecedented in the world of education and science as academic freedoms and the autonomy of universities is a corner stone in civilized societies. Can a minister in any country other than Ukraine gatecrash on a university and demand that its rector submit his resignation? This could happen only in the days of NKVD purges in the 1930s when noted and respected public figures could be removed without any explanations. Can it be that the hangover of those times is back in the ministry’s corridors, making it possible to demean rectors as individuals and professionals as well as the educational institutions they represent?

Viewed in a broad perspective, this is the humiliation of Ukraine per se as such a conduct of officials is condoned by the regime.

By starting a witch-hunt for rectors for obvious political reasons [for refusing to pledge allegiance to the Party of Regions – Ed.], the ministry is up against those who steered and developed their universities in the turbulent times. Ukrainians paid a dear price in the 20^th century to make their country civilized and democratic.”