2024
The Assembly passed the Law on Amendments to the Law on Higher Education ("Official Gazette of Montenegro", No. 125/23) which was amended at the initiative of members of the Parliament. The Law entered into force on 8 January 2024. It provides students who are enrolled at the University of Montenegro under the programs adopted on the basis of the Law on University ("Official Gazette of Montenegro", No. 37/ 92 and 6/94), an extended deadline for completing studies until the end of the academic year 2023/2024.
The Assembly adopted the Law on Confirmation of the Agreement on the Recognition of Qualifications in the Field of Higher Education in the Western Balkans ("Official Gazette of Montenegro", number 11/23), which entered into force on 23 February 2024. It was signed by the representatives of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia, in Berlin on 3 November 2022. This Agreement regulates the recognition of higher education qualifications, the continuation of studies and access to the unregulated labor market in each of the signatory countries. The agreement applies to higher education qualifications obtained at public accredited institutions of higher education in the signatory countries.
The draft of the Higher Education Strategy 2021-2025 went through a public discussion and is being finalized. The new Higher Education Strategy, taking into account when the previous draft was made, has been improved in terms of content, it has been updated when it comes to data, the action plan has been improved, new activities have been added.
At the session of 28 March, 2024, the Government appointed one member of the Ethics Committee, whereby the Ethics Committee, in full composition, continued its work on preserving, improving, protecting and promoting academic integrity and preventing all forms of violations of academic integrity.
In March 2024, the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation licensed the first joint master's academic interdisciplinary study program Maritime environmental protection and management, which will be organized by the Maritime Faculty, University of Montenegro, in cooperation with the University of Durrës and the University of Valona, Republic of Albania, to obtain a joint diploma, and the teaching will be conducted in English.
2023
In January 2023, the Collective Agreement on the amendment of the Collective Agreement for the University of Montenegro was signed, which stipulated that the coefficients of complexity of the employees would be increased by 20% from 1 February 2023; from 1 January 2024 an additional 10% and from 1 January 2025 for an additional 10%. In case of changed macroeconomic parameters during 2023 and 2024, the complexity coefficients can be additionally considered. The scope of application of the Collective agreement refers to employees who work at the University of Montenegro, i.e. teaching assistants, administrative and technical staff of the University, who are not covered by the amendments to the Law on Salaries of Public Sector Employees, which were related to the increase of the coefficient for the titles of full professor, associate professor and assistant professor at the university.
In February, the Government of Montenegro approved the Draft Law on Confirmation of the Agreement on the Recognition of Qualifications in the Field of Higher Education in the Western Balkans and sent it to the Assembly for confirmation which happened on 3rd April 2023. The agreement on the recognition of qualifications in the field of higher education in the Western Balkans was signed on 3 November 2022 in Berlin, as part of the Berlin process, and is a framework document that is identical for all signatory countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Serbia, Albania, Kosovo and Montenegro). The agreement defines the automatic procedure for the recognition of foreign educational documents obtained at public accredited institutions of higher education in the signatory countries.
In June 2023, the Ministry of Education adopted three regulations that improved student and student standards, namely:
- Rulebook on detailed criteria, amount and conditions for awarding scholarships to talented primary and secondary school students, which prescribes detailed criteria and conditions for awarding a scholarship to a talented primary and secondary school student who shows special sense, interest, curiosity in certain teaching subjects, i.e. fields and the ability for thought and creative processes and achieves outstanding results, as well as scholarships for deficient qualifications to a regular student of a vocational school who is educated according to an educational program for deficient qualifications.
- Rulebook on the criteria, manner, conditions and amount of compensation for exercising the right to a student loan and scholarship, which more closely prescribes the criteria, manner, conditions and amount of compensation for exercising the right to a student loan and scholarship for the best students.
- Rulebook on the criteria, method, conditions and amount of compensation for exercising the right to accommodation and food in the dormitory and participation in transport, which prescribes the criteria, method and sequence for the admission of pupils and students, the price of accommodation and food in pupil and student dormitories, as well as the criteria for transportation participation for primary and secondary school students and students at higher education institutions.
In June 2023, the Ministry of Education licensed the Academic Program in Business and Economics at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Montenegro. This is the first study program at the University of Montenegro where teaching will be conducted in English. By licensing this study program, the mobility of students will be improved and higher education in Montenegro will be better recognized by foreign students.
2022
On 28 July 2022, the Parliament of Montenegro passed the Law on Amendments to the Law on Higher Education, which established that the amount of the student loan cannot be lower than 25% of the minimum wage in Montenegro, that is, the amount of the scholarship for the best students cannot be lower of 50% of the minimum wage in Montenegro. This means that the minimum amount of the student loan will be 112.50 euros per month instead of the previous 37 euros, while the monthly scholarship amount for the best students will be 225 euros per month instead of the previous 86 euros.
At the end of July 2022, the Parliament of Montenegro adopted the Law on Amendments to the Law on Vocational Training of Persons with Higher Education, which established that the beneficiary has the right to a monthly financial allowance during vocational training in the net amount of 450 euros.
At the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Montenegro, a new Mechatronics study program was established, which will integrate engineering in the fields of electrical engineering, electronics, mechanical engineering and computer engineering. A total of 50 students will have the opportunity to study in this study program.
The drafting of the new Law on Higher Education, as well as the Strategy of Higher Education, which will further regulate and apply new provisions in order to ensure the quality in higher education, is ongoing.
In 2021, Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports provided licenses for three higher education institutions, i.e. four study programmes.
The total number of students at public higher education institutions, who enrolled for the first time at studies applying the 3 + 2 model in the 2021/2022 academic year, is 3154 undergraduate students, while the number of students enrolled in the first year of master's studies at public institutions of higher education in the study year 2021/2022 is 912 students.
At private institutions of higher education in the study year 2021/2022, a total of 1575 undergraduate students were enrolled, i.e. 287 students of master studies.