Ministry of Science: it is not possible to legally study without high school exit exam

The problem was reported by "Rzeczpospolita" daily.

Certain private universities offer accepting to zero year of study to high school students who have failed high school exit exam. If they pass the exit exam next year, and passed the exams of particular subjects at the university, they could be accepted to the second year of study.

The Ministry of Science and Higher Education received information about the three universities that offered this possibility. "Two of them immediately ceased to offer this type of courses. With the third - College of Business - National Louis University in Nowy Sacz - we are at the stage of exchanging letters" - reported the ministry press office.

Ministry of Science reminded that current legislation applicable to higher education does not provide for the possibility of study at year zero. "These may only be courses/training that are part of other tasks carried out by the university. Persons participating in such activities do not have student status" - explained the Ministry of Science in the release sent to PAP.

If during that time high school students pass exams in the subjects offered by the university in a given course, they can not be exempt from these exams during future studies. The students must therefore take all the subjects again and pass the exams after they become actual students of the university.

While the problem currently concerns only few universities, according to the President of the Students\' Parliament Piotr Mueller, reports of more universities may come in 6 months, when the "pseudo-students will be at the university, or in a year when they want to begin studies, and it will not be possible to recognize study results for their course of choice".

"Maybe the fact that the media will raise the matter, will scare off other universities. I bet, however, that some universities - in the context of making money - will most likely prepare such offers in September, after the results of the correction exit exams" - said Mueller in an interview with PAP.

In his view, proposing the "year zero" studies is unethical, detrimental to the title of university. "If someone does not meet the basic requirements for being a student, he should not be one. He should not be deceived that he is a student either. If a university is trying to repair its budget by accepting people to pseudo-studies, it is proof that this university does not care about the quality of education. Universities that want to have a decent image will not offer this type of courses" - Mueller told PAP.

The President of the Students\' Parliament emphasised that this is the first time such situation takes place. "The reason is simple. We have a demographic low, more than 100 universities have liquidity problems and come up with such ideas to make money" - believes Mueller. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that this year 30 percent high school students have failed exit exams.

With regard to the universities that accept second year students who were not students of the first year, the Ministry of Science will take supervisory action and carry out an investigation. University is informed that its conduct is illegal and must submit an explanation. If it does not, and fails to withdraw or correct the offer, Ministry of Science could take further supervisory action, including the initiation of proceedings for revocation of the university establishment permit.

"We urge students to be vigilant, not allow to be conned with such offers and approached these proposals with a high degree of caution. It is not legally possible to study without a high school exit exam" - reminded the Ministry of Science. The Students\' Parliament also warns against accepting such offers. "Those who benefit from these offers have no guarantee that the results of the so-called zero year will be recognised at the next year of study" - emphasised Piotr Mueller.

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