Over 700 student complaints: rights exist on paper, no solutions
Studentarija recorded more than 700 reports in six months about meal allowances, dorm conditions, transport and exam issues.
More than 700 complaints from students have been submitted to the digital platform Studentarija in the past six months, detailing problems from outdated meal allowances to delays in scholarships and poor dormitory conditions.
The reports cover six main areas: student meals not adjusted for inflation, lack of basic conditions in dormitories, late scholarship payments, absence of free public transport for students at private universities, increased intercity transport fares, and problems with exams and professors.
Studentarija lists concrete demands
Studentarija says its priority demands include adjusting the student meal allowance to follow inflation, preventing students from losing the right to subsidised meals because of unupdated records at student services, publishing points used in dormitory admissions, and improving transparency in exam grading.
“When we put together all these six areas I mentioned, we can reach one conclusion: the right exists on paper. The institution that is responsible and should react also exists on paper, the procedures that should be followed are also only on paper. However, there is no solution for the students' problems,” said Goshe Nikolov, Studentarija platform.
The platform also criticised unequal access to benefits between cities. “It is discriminatory for students in Skopje to have free public transport while those in Tetovo, Bitola, Shtip and Ohrid do not have that right. This should also apply to students at private universities. We as Studentarija are regularly in contact with dorms, universities and the Ministry of Education, but we appeal to the public service to perform its duties because they are obligated to do so,” said Aleksandar Nikolovski.
In recent days residents of the Stiv Naumov student dormitory reported leaking water in rooms and lack of central heating. The Ministry of Education said the contractor will repair the defects, but also blamed students — claiming clogged drains caused by discarded wet wipes, an activated alarm from forgotten food in a switched-on microwave, a lit cigarette in a room and a removed radiator.
Photo: press material from the event
