The Board of the National University of Mongolia announced to make structural changes to the university after the board meeting last November. The authority of the National University of Mongolia permanently proposed huge changes to the structure of the first university in Mongolia; integrating 14 schools into the four sections of the School of Law, School of Environment and Humanity, School of Social Sciences and School of Business.

However, National University teachers, students and staff are now holding demonstrations today in opposition to the structural changes, and have created a permanent committee to urge democracy, outside of the 1st faculty building on December 12th, 2013. The Demonstration involves over 50 teachers and 20 students.

The oldest university, the National University of Mongolia operates with over 100 Departments in 14 main schools and two branch schools in the countryside. According to the President of the National University of Mongolia, A.Galtbayar, who in charge of the proposed structural change, this is not the traditional structure of the university. He said that:

“Two decades ago the National University of Mongolia had only a few faculties such as the natural sciences, social science and economic studies. The current structure, with numerous schools and departments of the university, was created by the demand of self-financing through increasing classes and programs at the time when the state-backed finance stopped when Mongolia transferred to free-market economy in 1990.

“I think there was no choice for the former presidents of the university but to survive during the hard times. But now everything has changed according to the market economy. High education quality is highly focused. Now the university is seeing a time to improve competitiveness to survive. It is now an option for Mongolian students to study abroad. Therefore the National University should keep pace on an international level.

“The current structure does not meet the requirements of International standard universities as there are too many duplicated programs and even classes. Such a structure causes heavy authority and useless positions and inefficiency.”

After the proposal of the structural changes to the university, a poll was conducted among students in November. When the results of the poll emerged, 60 percent of the students agreed to the permanent proposal while 25 percent disagreed and 15 percent answered that they did not know.

During a student forum, which was held on International Students” Day, students expressed stances against integrating the School of Foreign Services, School of Law, School of Economic Studies and School of Physics and Electronics as those are the few schools where competitiveness and enrollment is high.