"The lower ranking of the state university, specifically in Belgrade, can be primarily blamed on the state, with its extremely restrictive measures, and even more so with its constant intimidation of professors and students, expulsions, dismissals, arrests of students and the like", claims Svetlana Slapšak, a Serbian and Slovenian scientist and anthropologist in an article in "Peščanik".
She adds that "these elements are of course not part of the criteria for Shanghai List, but act locally, on the result, minimal movements up and down the list".
This clarification came because of the recent statement of the President of the Assembly of Serbia Ana Brnabić, after the news that the University of Novi Sad was dropped from the list as a result of faculty blockades. She also added that the University of Belgrade fell on the Shanghai list.
"It is important that the blockaders are not to blame, thanks to which the University of Novi Sad dropped out of the Shanghai list in 2025, and in Belgrade fell into the category between 401st and 500th place. This is how they would lead our country...," said Brnabić on the X network.
However, it is not clear which decline Ana Brnabić is specifically referring to, because the University of Belgrade was in the same category in 2024 and 2025. The decline actually occurred at the transition from 2023 to 2024, and the academic public explained that the ranking is based on criteria in the period before the year for which it is published. So the success of Belgrade University was actually measured long before the blockades started.
Shanghai list
Plenum lesson
Since 2003, the Shanghai list of universities has classified about 2.500 universities in the world according to five criteria, the most important of which is Nobel prize, but not for literature or for peace - only for the "hard" sciences. Svetlana Slapšak adds that it is Rector Vladan Đokić with his cited scientific works, he only contributed to the status of the University of Belgrade, as he also contributed to the protection of students against repression.
The Academic Plenum immediately explained to Ana Brnabić that the position on the Shanghai list does not change due to the results during the current year, but during previous years. They point out that for the last published list of 2025, not a single result from 2025 was counted, but only the scientific contribution before the blockades.
"And when it comes to the development of science - the most responsible are the minister of science, the provincial secretary for science and the rector of the University of Novi Sad, who create the environment and provide funding for scientific activity. All of the aforementioned: Bela Balint, Branko Markoski and Dejan Madić are, of course, the powerhouses of this government that unquestioningly support Aleksandar Vučić," they state.
SNS achievements
The Academic Plenum asked Ana Brnabić to "take a look at the scientific works and citations of professors who work at UNS, and are part of this government, because there they will also find the reasons why the University of Novi Sad was dropped from the Shanghai list".
"The Assembly of Serbia recently elected three new judges of the Constitutional Court who are professors at the Faculty of Law in Novi Sad: Zoran Lončar, Bojan Tubić and Atila Dudaš, who in the last three years together do not have a single paper on the SCI list, which is relevant for scoring on the Shanghai list," announced the Academic Plenum.
To say that the universities in Serbia fell on the Shanghai list due to student blockades of the faculty is a change of thesis, Nikola Cvetanović, a professor at the Faculty of Traffic in Belgrade and a member of the Network of Academic Solidarity and Engagement, told N1.
"You put different pressures on scientific institutions. You put pressure on scientific and educational institutions such as universities and then you expect scientific work to be equal," he said after the statement of the President of the Assembly. "Thanks to the heroic work of our scientists, especially in certain areas, there are some areas where we are at the top in the world, we still managed to maintain that position. But now to say that we fell because of the blockades is really changing the thesis. And we didn't fall on the list."
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