Private universities, domestic and foreign, will be entitled to funding from the budget, and the status of a budget student will likely be handed out more by favor and loyalty than by merit. I do not share the opinion of the Minister of Education that young people leave this country because there are no good universities. They are leaving this country because there is no hope left in it. And without quality education, there is no future
...Ivanka Popović
The multi-year collapse of education in Serbia has not bypassed higher education either. The decision of the Board of Education opened the way for the Assembly to take full control over the higher education system through appropriate state mechanisms. I believe that the proposal to amend the Law on Higher Education will soon be voted on without much resistance.
Ten years ago, the former higher schools, now known as higher vocational schools and academies of vocational studies, began to be brought under control. The state took full control over higher vocational schools with the Amendments to the Law on Higher Education from 2017. The law introduced that the governing body of these institutions - the Council, which is in charge of legal and financial issues, consists of 40 percent of the founder's delegates, usually the state, and 15 percent of the student delegates. By the same law, the share of founder representatives in university and faculty councils was increased to 30%, and the share of student representatives to 15%. That was the first step.
SECOND STEP
The Law on Student Organizations from 2021 stipulated that 20 percent of the members of professional bodies of higher education institutions, such as the Senate and teaching-scientific councils, are made up of students. Instead of having a positive context, this regulation was misused to create an interest coalition between founder representatives and student representatives, which in the case of higher vocational schools immediately provided the state with a 55% majority to govern the Council. In the case of universities and faculties, that sum amounts to 45%, which, with the support of several cooperative members of the Council from among representatives of the institution, is quite enough for the state to control the Council when it needs it. Practice shows that the cooperation of the two interest groups in the Council of Higher Education Institutions is rounded and fully functional.
This year's elections for student parliaments took place in the shadow of regular elections, but with similar electoral irregularities. The previously mentioned Law on Student Organizations enabled the representatives of the current administrations of the student parliaments to prevent opposing candidates in the elections by denying consent to the status of a registered student organization. According to this Law, only representatives of registered student organizations can participate in student elections. That was the second step.
Thus, at least at UB, the old administrations of the student parliaments mostly became new administrations whose two-year mandates began on October 1 of this year. Only at the Faculty of Political Sciences, after a long and persistent struggle, did a newly registered student organization win the elections. But even this victory was thwarted because the old administration of the parliament changed the regulations on the work of the FPN Student Parliament by the end of its mandate, determining that the student parliament can only be governed by a student organization with a two-thirds majority. The winners of the elections had a simple majority, so the situation in the FPN will most likely be resolved by new elections.
THIRD STEP
The elections at the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad were even more dramatic and led to a two-week blockade of the Rectorate of the University of Novi Sad this summer. Namely, at that faculty, the administration of the Student Parliament did not allow a competing student organization to register, which caused justifiable dissatisfaction among students. The elections, contrary to regulations, were moved from the faculty to the Rector's Office and were held at the end of September with harrowing scenes of violent intervention by masked men in black and the throwing of explosive devices. In such conditions, a total of 10 students voted and the student-dean Ivana Macak was re-elected.
On the other hand, the election of a student vice-rector at the University of Belgrade went virtually unnoticed. The elections were postponed several times because the UB Student Parliament skillfully avoided holding the election session with the presence of interested student activists. The session was finally held and the former student-vice chancellor of the UB, who had a position in the Center for Education and Development of the Youth of Belgrade, in whose premises money was distributed for work in the SNS call center, was nominated. At the session of the UB Council in mid-October 2024, Ana Grčić was elected for the third time as a student-vice chancellor of the University of Belgrade with 30 votes in favor and 4 abstentions.
During 2023, the Parliament of Serbia confirmed the Amendments to the Law on the Budget System, which actually puts under control the flow of own funds of faculties or universities. By controlling payments and admissions at higher education institutions, the state can exert direct pressure on universities and colleges. Bearing in mind that for years the state has not fulfilled its financial obligations towards the institutions of which it is the founder, higher education institutions can only fulfill all financial obligations with their own funds, especially faculties with large material costs for practical work. This was the third step.
Allocated state funds are distributed restrictively through narrow and inflexible budget lines. Thus, faculties often return unused money from one budget line, and then send a request to the state to redistribute the same funds for other purposes. These requests are generally accepted, but their positive resolution cannot be counted on with certainty.
THE FINAL STEP
From the moment when private universities and faculties appeared in Serbia, their representatives raised the issue of the right of their students to budgetary status. This is a request that is inconsistent with the essence of the term "founder of a higher education institution". The state, as the founder of a higher education institution, has the obligation to finance its work. A private institution is established with its own funds and ensures its work through the income it generates independently. Until now, this essential difference ensured the status of budget student only for students of state higher education institutions.
Practice has shown that, unfortunately, it is easier to get a diploma at a number of private universities. Based on the findings of the Commission for Accreditation and Quality Control at the end of 2017, about 2000 doctorates from several private universities were contested. This case quickly disappeared from the public eye and later it turned out that the relevant Ministry confirmed the validity of the doctorates in question. This is how the solving of "inconvenient" cases with direct state intervention began. Accordingly, some aspects of the work of the Faculty of Orthodox Theology in Belgrade, which are in conflict with the autonomy of the university, have been legalized through the Amendments to the Law on Higher Education from 2021. These decisions are test cases for the fourth step.
About a year ago, information came from the top of the state that the state would bring franchises of the "best foreign universities". The realization of that intention will be made possible by the near, fairly certain adoption of the Amendments to the Law on Higher Education in the Parliament. Here we are witnessing the same reasoning that accompanies the implementation of other capital projects in Serbia, such as the Rio Tinta project and the hotel complex at the site of the General Staff. Laws are ignored or adapted to the needs of the interest group in power. Thus, any control and supervision over favored foreign partner universities will be impossible, regardless of their real quality. Under these conditions, the attitude that their arrival will encourage competition and raise the quality of studies is misplaced. Income from their activities will end up abroad, and domestic institutions will weaken even more. Private universities, domestic and foreign, will be entitled to funding from the budget, and the status of a budget student will likely be handed out more by favor and loyalty than by merit. This is the fourth and final step. I do not share the opinion of the Minister of Education that young people leave this country because there are no good universities. They are leaving this country because there is no hope left in it. And without quality education, there is no future.
The author is a former rector of Belgrade University
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Putin nevertheless received Vučić. If the latter is to be believed, Serbia will have as much oil and gas as our hearts desire. And a cheap one. I am afraid, however, of the folk saying "He who does not pay on the bridge, pays on the bridge". And if the situation could be even worse, this behavior of Vučić could "burn" all bridges and bridges towards the EU. And then there is neither the opening of clusters, nor the first 110 million non-returnable euros from the Growth Plan, nor European investments
Young people in Serbia, aware of their capabilities, knowledge and ingenuity in leading the fight for justice, shook the foundations of the system that anesthetized its citizens (their parents), narrowed the spaces for them to talk, divided them into "citizens" and students in the blockade and directly confronted them. But how did they manage to shake the foundations of the system? Precisely thanks to the attitude that their every action exudes: Is there anything we can't do?
Seseljization and pinkoization threaten to destroy the culture, identity and future of the entire nation. The defense of the university is not enough, but it is a necessary condition for the preservation of all those values
We could see what kind of attitude the government has towards the days it itself declared as Days of Remembrance for the Victims of Mass Murders last Saturday when, as part of the nationalist, populist and kitsch manifestation Belgrade Family Days, citizens were invited to laugh, dance at concerts, enjoy themselves with majorettes, and children to practice shooting accuracy, all on the day when a child in the center of Belgrade killed children and a guard at a school
For the purposes of discrediting the EU, even some kind of bizarre video was used, in which drunken people pee from bridges into canals at some kind of party in the Netherlands. "Informer" immediately connected the story of a decadent Europe that is experiencing its demise
The regime's retaliation will be dire if the resistance falters. Now they want to imprison the people who talked about overthrowing the government because they were supposedly overthrowing the state. But the state was hijacked and overthrown by the regime a long time ago
The Ministry of Public Investment submitted a request for a building permit for the construction of a new building for the Belgrade Philharmonic. Given that it is known that the project is too expensive and that there is no money for it, it seems that this too is just another colorful lie
The knee-jerk Supreme Being trusts in the local elections in Kosjerić and Zaječar. It must not be forgotten that for 13 years he poured heavy poisons, especially in the province, and that detoxification is a long and painful process.
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Those foreign universities would come to us and just rent space - no one wants to build a campus for a branch of a university. The only thing that would be gained in this way is that the students who enroll in it have a degree from a foreign university. The conditions, the environment, and the atmosphere that that university provides, and even the knowledge, would not be the same and all this would be because of the diploma.
In between
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