MINSK, October 9. /TASS/. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said at a meeting that personnel must be reshuffled in universities, whose students "displayed negligent attitude to higher education," BelTA news agency reported Friday.

"Behavior of some students reveals their, mildly put, negligent attitude to higher education. This may lead to the loss of its value as an important social step. University rectors are underperforming here. In the coming days, within a week, we must solve the personnel issue in these universities," Lukashenko said.

He added that special attention must be paid to employment policy, and "active public-minded individuals capable of engaging in a dialogue with the citizens" must be singled out.

"The most important issue that we face is reliability. We were too careless when picking and appointing the personnel. And then some of them ‘switched sides’, actually those the state had nurtured. Therefore, reliability, patriotism, devotion to the ideas of the people take center stage now," he said.

Previously, Lukashenko noted repeatedly that a significant portion of protesters is comprised of young people who never experienced "the difficulties of the wild nineties."