A protest rally is currently underway outside the Ministry of Education of Georgia, where students and faculty members of Ilia State University have gathered to voice their opposition to the government’s recent decision on admission quotas.
The demonstrators are protesting a reform that limits future admissions at Ilia State University to pedagogy programmes and STEM specialities accredited by ABET. University representatives argue that the measure effectively dismantles the institution’s multidisciplinary model.
Dean of the Faculty of Sciences and Arts, Associate Professor Nino Mataradze, said the decision amounts to suspending the university’s full operation, and was made without prior consultation with the academic community.
“For us, this decision and the announced changes are entirely unacceptable. None of these reforms was discussed or agreed upon with the university in advance. This clearly demonstrates that the reform was not developed with the involvement of academic staff, students, or educational experts,” Mataradze said.
She claimed that restricting admissions to a limited number of programmes would undermine one of the university’s core strengths — its interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research environment.
“It is unthinkable to implement such programmes in isolation, without collaboration across disciplines or access to the research and educational resources we previously had. One of our university’s main advantages has always been its capacity for interdisciplinary work,” she added.
Mataradze stated that the university community intends to pursue all available legal avenues to protect the institution’s autonomy, which she described as being under serious threat. She also called for a meeting with officials to receive clear answers regarding the decision.
The protest follows the government’s broader higher education reform, which introduces the “one city – one faculty” principle and redistributes admission quotas among state universities.
