‘We must consolidate resources’: Georgian minister defends reforms

Georgia’s education minister has defended controversial plans to restrict the subjects state universities may offer, seen as one of the most extreme examples of a trend towards more state involvement in higher education after an era marked by intense marketisation.

The overhaul, known as the “one city, one faculty” approach, triggered months of protests and warnings of political interference in higher education when it was announced last year.

State universities in a given city will be told to focus on certain subjects, and their faculties outside these areas will close. A new quota system will give the state direct control over admissions by dictating how many students each university may admit to each programme.

Among the worst-affected institutions is Ilia State University, one of the country’s top universities. Its admissions have been cut by more than 90 per cent, and staff told Times Higher Education that job losses are imminent because long-established programmes will not be able to accept new students.

But in an interview with THE, Givi Mikanadze, Georgia’s education minister, defended the reforms, which he said were necessary to align higher education with “labour market demand” and to focus on universities’ “historical strengths”.

“The issue is that Georgia is a small country, with a population of 4 million, and the resources are split among different universities. Our idea is to consolidate resources to universities [based on their traditional strengths],” he said.

“We decided to conduct the first-ever market research to find out what is the demand from the market. In the law profession, for example, we found that demand is at least two times less than the number of students accepted as newcomers at universities.”

The changes, introduced by Georgian Dream, a conservative political party that has been in power since 2012, also involve a new performance-based funding model for universities.

“We are looking in two directions, providing basic funding per student and additionally performance-based funding,” Mikanadze explained.

Asked what metrics would be used to measure performance, Mikanadze said the draft was still under consideration, without revealing further details. “We are in the final point of consideration of the draft,” he said, and discussions would begin imminently.

There have been widespread concerns about the reforms’ impact on institutional autonomy and academic freedom. Critics say that the combination of centralising admissions, restricting what universities can teach and tying funding to performance will entrench government control of universities in a system that lacks transparency.

The board of the European University Association has warned that the wider reforms “undermine institutional governance and strategic planning at a time when universities urgently need strategic autonomy to navigate today’s complex challenges”.

Mikanadze rejected claims that the changes threaten autonomy. “Out of the 19 universities, only one is challenging this without proper argument,” he insisted, referring to Ilia State. “I personally have met with the rector, vice-rector, chancellor and head of the scientific council for one and a half hours.”

He said that Ilia State had been established as a branch of Tbilisi State University and was historically a pedagogical institution whose profile had expanded beyond its original remit.

Asked about potential job losses and the impact on long-established faculties, Mikanadze said “nobody is losing their job”, adding that universities would continue teaching existing cohorts until they graduate.

But once those cohorts complete their studies, universities will no longer be permitted to admit new students into programmes outside their assigned academic profiles, in effect phasing out those faculties over time.

The minister said the reforms would create new academic positions, including “leading professors”, appointed through “open competition”. Academics have raised concerns that the process will lead to political favouritism in academic hiring and that the criteria remained unclear.

Mikanadze said the roles would be introduced to coordinate academic standards across disciplines.

Asked how the professors would be chosen and how many, the education ministry said “higher education institutions are responsible” for selecting and determining who takes on these roles. “It is their mandate, and it is not indicated in the law or other regulatory document of the ministry,” it said.

These professors would also take on responsibility for developing standardised national teaching materials, replacing textbooks produced independently by lecturers. “Today we are facing a challenge with the textbooks. Every lecturer is developing their own textbooks for their discipline. The level of quality is not good any more,” Mikanadze said.

seher.asaf@timeshighereducation.com