Accreditation Restored To Georgian University

Students protest the decision on March 13 outside the Education Ministry in Tbilisi.

TBILISI -- Georgia's Council of Authorization has ruled that the accreditation for the Agrarian University in Tbilisi should be reinstated.

Council officials announced that the decision was made after "the university corrected all the violations of the Law on Education."

Earlier this month, students from several universities in Tbilisi demonstrated against the withdrawal of the university's accreditation, calling the decision politically motivated.

The chairman of the university's supervising council, Kakha Bendukidze, insisted then that the move was aimed against him personally.

Bendukidze has served as economy minister, reform coordination minister, and the head of the cabinet's chancellery and is known as a very close ally of President Mikheil Saakashvili.

Many of the president's associates have come under political and legal pressure since the coalition led by Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili -- an archrival of Saakashvili -- won October's parliamentary elections.