The rector of the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice as a member of the delegation of rectors to discuss the financing of higher education

The President of the National Council of the Slovak Republic Peter Pellegrini, the Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic Robert Fico, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of the Slovak Republic Peter Kažimír, and the Minister of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic Juraj Daxler met with the representatives of the Slovak Rectors’ Conference in February 8, 2016. The Slovak Rectors’ Conference was represented by its president Rudolf Kropil, by the vice-president Karol Mičieta (the rector of the Comenius University in Bratislava), by Marek Šmid (the rector of the Trnava University in Trnava), and by the representatives of the conference from several other regions, i.e. Pavol Sovák (rector of the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice) and Peter Bielik (rector of the Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra). The meeting was the result of the agreement from December 10, 2015, within which the government of the Slovak Republic committed itself to react to the most pressing problems of higher education. In the spirit of this agreement the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of the Slovak Republic Peter Kažimír decided to grant 20 million euros for additional financing and for the development of universities in 2016 as budgetary provisions in February 8, 2016. The representatives of the government accepted the proposal of the Slovak Rectors’ Conference to distribute 50 million euros among the universities that the government released for the reconstruction of dormitories of public universities. The reconstruction of the dormitories is the first one in the modern history of the Slovak Republic.  The government also offered the representatives of the Slovak Rectors’ Conference several alternatives to relieve the universities of the burden of corrections in the use of EU funds, which universities are not able to handle from their own budget.  These alternatives will be discussed as soon as possible in order to settle an agreement between the government of the Slovak Republic and the Slovak Rectors’ Conference in a short time.