"The proposed 2013 budget is devastating for the universities and means that they will not be able to conduct classes on the first and second Bologna level," Ljubljana University Chancellor Stanislav Pejovnik stressed at a press conference on Friday.

He added that deputies and ministers would be notified of the situation in Slovenia's higher education ahead of Saturday's session of the parliamentary Finance and Monetary Policy Committee.

Pejovnik said the university had done everything to cut costs within the institution in 2012. Although the university will save EUR 15m through retirements and cost cutting, at least five faculties are to face liquidity problems this year.

The university maintains that the budget funding of higher education must be kept at least at the same level as this year, he said, while the proposed budget would bring 16% less for higher education and 19% less for research and development.

The universities want the government to explain why the cuts are highest in science, Pejovnik said, offering dialogue in preparing the multi-annual restructuring programme.

The chancellors of the University of Maribor and University of Primorsko, Danijel Rebolj and Dragan Marušič, also told the STA that their institutions have cut costs as much as they could painlessly and that more was not possible without severe consequences.

According to Rebolj, the Maribor University cannot simply close down 13 programmes and dismiss 1,500 students with January, which would be needed to make it through 2013 in the black.

"We are not protesters by nature," said Rebolj, "but above all researchers, professors and students whose first interest is to study rather than protest."

Ljubljana Faculty of Economics dean Dušan Mramor told the STA that the protest of the universities had shown there was no reason to continue the disproportional cuts in the higher education budget, which he argued was political and was aimed at destroying the system of public education, since funding of private institutions was being increased.

The artistic academies of the Ljubljana University joined the protest, stopping their lectures for three hours, to show the already difficult situation at the academies, which their deans said would leave them without any prospect with the budget cut.

Although culture is to get 17% less funding in the 2013 budget compared to this year, Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television (AGRFT) dean Miran Zupanič said they would not resort to violent protests and throw cobblestones, but rather present arguments, which are "harder than cobble".

The Slovenian Student Organisation (ŠOS) expressed support for the universities' protest, highlighting the consequences the budget cuts could bring for the international competitiveness of Slovenia and the future of the generations to come.