Increase in fee paying fast-track short degree students provokes protest at

Students of the Warsaw School of Economics (SGH), yesterday gathered in front of the university entrance to "whistle out" the SGH Senate's idea to increase the number of students who will pay tuition fees, up to 800. These students will join the next academic year for a two year bachelor degree, paying zł. 2,400 per semester. "This will lower the quality and the prestige of the SGH degree," claimed protesting students. "We have no choice, the subsidies from the Education Ministry are regularly falling. Today, two thirds of our revenues are fees from our part-time students. To keep our standards up we need money," said SGH rector prof. Marek Rokicki. This is the first time in history that students are protesting about the quality of their institute. The number of students in the country is constantly growing. There are around 1.7 million registered students across the country, including over 900,000 of those who are paying tuition fees. SGH is one of Warsaw's oldest and most prestigious university, with over 70,000 graduates over the past 98 years. (Gazeta Wyborcza, pp. 1, 4) A.K.