Science and Education Minister Radovan Fuchs said on Tuesday attempts were being made to enable all college students to enrol in freshman year free of charge and make sure that they did not pay future enrolment fees as long as they met their obligations.
Speaking at a press conference on new science and college education bills, Fuchs said the enrolment fee for students not meeting their obligations was about HRK 1,500, or 60 per cent of an average monthly salary, or an entire average monthly pay amount for PhD students.
Fuchs said the bills did not rescind university autonomy and that the government planned to form a body that would control the spending of budget funds for transparency purposes. "Such a body is under no political influence," he said, adding that other countries had a similar model.
The minister said the bills did not break up the University of Zagreb, but left it to universities to decide on the matter themselves.
He said his ministry had a partner relationship with the academic community and that it was not good to call for a strike against something that had not been adopted yet.
He said new laws were necessary so Croatia could be as prepared as possible for European Union accession.
