STA, February 7, 2018 - Presenting an analysis of additional contract work by university employees, a practice that has caused public outrage in recent years, the Corruption Prevention Commission (KPK) called on the Education Ministry to provide a clear delineation of market activities and public service in higher education and at universities.
The contract work of lecturers raised dust in the spring of 2015, when the KPK published data on financial transactions conducted by the state and state-owned bodies, showing that professors and faculty officials receive a lot of money for contract work for universities.
The universities claimed a large part of the contracts was for faculties' market activities.
The revelation prompted the resignation of Education Minister Stanka Setnikar Cankar, who made over half a million euros in eleven years with contractual work for the Faculty of Administration, where she was a tenured professor and three-term dean.
Looking at the practices more closely, the KPK found that the "enormous payouts" were the consequence of unclear distinction between faculties' public and market services and lack of oversight.
The commission therefore proposes a clear definition of the public service in higher education, based on which the direct and indirect obligations of teachers would be clearly set along with their research and development work and other obligations.
It also proposes that universities clearly define their market activities and their implementation in their internal documents to distinguish them from the public service. A distinction should also be made between research work that is part of the public service and the research paid through contracts.
The KPK also proposes that professors keep weekly and monthly records of their hours of work.
The Education Ministry recently presented changes to the higher education act that define the public service in higher education. The bill was sent to public consultations at the end of January.
It allows public higher education institutions to conduct other activities next to their public service as long as this does not affect the size and quality of their public work and as long as the costs and revenue from such activities are clearly separated.
Faculties will be able to offer payable programmes as a market activity only to foreign citizens under the proposal.
