Panico requested that the June 30, 2025, deadline be rescinded. He appealed to the Constitutional Court following a complaint from 30 doctoral students who claimed they had not been able to complete their dissertations in time and, after that date, lost the opportunity to defend the work they had spent many years on.
These are individuals who enrolled in doctoral programs before the new rules took effect in 2014. The government allowed them to complete their dissertations under the old rules but set a deadline.
Initially, they were required to defend their dissertations by December 31, 2023. The deadline was then extended to June 30, 2024, and later to June 30, 2025.
Ceslav Panico believed that the government had no right to set such a deadline and, in doing so, had restricted people’s right to education.
The Constitutional Court disagreed, ruled the People’s Advocate’s petition inadmissible, and declined to consider it on its merits.
The justices stated that the old rules did not grant doctoral students the right to continue their studies and defend their dissertations indefinitely.
