Testimonials

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Sandro Rosell
FC Barcelona President

Despite promising statements condemning violence from some universities in August, even before the start of the school year it became clear that there would be pressure on active students and teachers. The Belarusian Students' Association prepared a review of the pressure on students over the previous academic year. Honest University published it's "University is not a prison" project in December 2021. We supplement this data with cases of fired teachers.


The main outcome of 2021 was the approval of the new edition of the Education Code, which was supposed to create the basis for the Bologna reforms. Positive changes in the Code include the enshrinement of the norm of adding "Diploma Supplement" to the diploma in accordance with the European model after more than 10 years of promising. This is the only Bologna commitment that has been fulfilled almost fully.

Below we cite the selected parts of our analytical report, you can download the full report by clicking here.

The report was prepared by the Belarusian Student Support Association (BeSSA), an association of initiatives and organizations of the Belarusian diaspora working to support the Belarusian academic community. The association was established in autumn 2020 in the wake of repressions against students, employees of Belarusian universities and research institutions, in particular, the National Academy of Sciences. To date, BeSSA brings together organizations and academic initiatives from at least 10 countries, including Belarus, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Portugal and the United States. The focus of BeSSA's activities is on consolidating resources to create programs to support the target group, and on finding and disseminating information about existing opportunities for continuing education and / or academic careers outside the Belarusian education system.

Belarusian Independent Bologna Committee is launching a series of articles with stories of fired university teachers. We cite articles in their entirety, without editing. All authors could hide the names of universities and departments for security reasons.

I'm 47 years old. I am a former employee of a regional university, Ph.D. I worked in the educational and methodological department for 20 years, defended my dissertation, taught. After the events related to the elections, I participated in protests, signed the appeal of students, staff and alumni of the university against violence.

The project "Belarus - Higher Education Modernization" is being implemented by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Belarus and is financed through an International Bank for Reconstruction and Development loan of 100 million euros. The stated goal of the project is to improve the teaching and learning environment and the information on labor market relevance of higher education. The intended timeframe of the project is 5 years (2020-2025).

The Bank's Social and Environmental Framework document [1] emphasizes the importance of open and transparent communication between the borrower and stakeholders, and the importance of effective stakeholder involvement for successful project planning and implementation. Also, when determining the basis for the partnership between Belarus and the Bank for 2018-2022, [2] the importance of transparency and public participation was emphasized. Thus, the need for more information on public policy decisions and its availability has been highlighted as an overarching priority (paragraph 50). Accordingly, it is logical to expect the implementation of the stated principles in the project of modernization of higher education.