A day after the Center for Investigative Reporting in Sarajevo (CIN) published a story about suspicious licensing of higher education institutions, RS Prime Minister Milorad Dodik halted the issuance of new licenses and ordered a review of licenses issued to date.

CIN found that RS Ministry of Education employees gave licenses based on who they knew or had connections to. They broke rules they themselves introduced and issued licenses arbitrarily.

‘Review of licensed higher education institutions, in accord with the Law on Higher Education, will be done by Feb. 2008’ according to an announcement signed by Anton Kasipović, minister of education and culture for the RS. That is a short deadline considering holidays in December and January.

The announcement also said that assistance would come from the Council for Development of Higher Education and Insurance of Quality, ‘which should soon be formed.’

The minister told CIN during its investigation that not enough quality candidates could be find to establish the council as required by law.