Students holding banners saying “No” to the education reform | Photo by: Meri Jordanovska

Students opposed to a recently adopted law, which has introduced external, state-supervised exams, on Tuesday reached a “principled agreement” to start occupying college campuses.

However, students said the final decision about which educational facilities to occupy and when would be determined later on.

They also said they remained open to discussions with the Education Ministry and the authorities in general.

“Prepare yourself, dear Prime Minister, dear Government, dear legislators, dear President, grab your indexes and go to classes. The Students’ plenum will start teaching statehood lessons! The struggle begins!” the group recently wrote on its Facebook page after parliament in January adopted the law.

Last December, over 12,000 students opposed to the plan attended what looked like the biggest student protest in Macedonia in decades. They were joined by professors who later set up their own informal movement, the Professors’ Plenum.

Critics and protesters say mandatory externally supervised exams for graduates violate the autonomy of the country’s universities.

The change envisages all students taking a “state exam” in their second year and again before they complete their studies. Government bodies, not the universities, are in charge of the exams.

The government of Nikola Gruevski has ignored the protests. It insists that the reform will improve the quality of higher education. It has also blamed the protests on the opposition Social Democrats.