“I did not expect the situation to be this serious. This was a Soviet-style meeting - apparently, Samushia had no questions, yet he agreed and legally justified that the state had the right to merge the universities. The discussion started by saying that this issue should not be given a political dimension,” said Ketevan Khuskivadze, a lecturer at Tbilisi State University (TSU), following the academic council meeting.

According to the lecturer, various positions were expressed at the meeting. She noted that “everyone is dissatisfied” with the merger of TSU and the Georgian Technical University.

“I did not expect such a difficult situation. Students, you are mostly young and may not know what meetings were like during the Soviet Union. This meeting was exactly like that. I knew that Samushia would try in every possible way to avoid responsibility and not reveal exactly who issued the order to merge the two state universities. Of course, he does not know on what research or basis this was done. He only knows that there was a phone call; first, the rector of the Technical University was called, and then, half an hour later, they were told that the two universities would be merged. Apparently, he has no questions, yet he agrees. That is the impression I got, because he legally justified it and said that the state supposedly had the right to merge the universities.

I asked questions about the university’s autonomy, but he had no answer. He himself makes political statements, starting the discussion by saying that this issue should not be politicized. The decision is political, so how can they expect to handle it academically?

The whole presentation, so to speak, was Samushia trying to act as a mediator between the Ministry of Education and five people from the academic and representative councils who would ask the Minister questions. Meanwhile, the process was already underway.

It was a formal meeting, as I expected. Probably, they did not expect me to be there, nor others who were critically minded. What I understood from this meeting is that Samushia personally expects me to apologize. Apparently, I am being blamed for the special forces operation that took place here. There were students with me who stayed up all night, and they were attacked. Supposedly, I was wrong, and it had nothing to do with the university. They made statements and investigated the matter. I blame Samushia for this, so I am supposed to apologize. I, of course, do not intend to do so.

Various positions were expressed at the meeting. Mostly, everyone is dissatisfied with this situation. However, how they will express this and whether they will go to the meaningless negotiations with the Ministry of Education and specifically with Mikanadze, I do not know. The format they propose is unclear, and I do not know what can be achieved this way,” said Ketevan Khuskivadze.

For reference, an academic council meeting was held at Tbilisi State University to discuss the issue of the university merger. At the same time, students protesting the initiative to merge TSU and the Technical University are holding a demonstration in front of the main campus building.