Although it has only been a little more than two months since the ruling majority in the National Assembly voted on the amendments of the Law on Higher Education - what the speaker of the parliament, Ana Brnabić, called "the hardest passed law ever" and "fulfilling the fourth student demand" - the Government of Serbia is now preparing a draft of the new law.
The first meeting of the Working Group established by the Government with the task of prepare a draft of the new Law on higher education was supposed to be held on Monday (May 19). However, as "Danas" reports, the meeting has been postponed in the meantime.
The news that the Working Group will primarily deal with the issue of financing higher education institutions caused fear in the academic community, with suspicions that the new Law on Higher Education will be passed with the aim of further repression against universities and professors.
Although the new legal solutions are only speculated for now, fear and foreboding were further intensified when it was learned that the president of the Working Group that writes the law will be the newly minted Minister of Education. Dejan Vuk Stankovic, yesterday's unscrupulous regime analyst and welcome guest on government-friendly TV channels.
What is in store for the new Law on Higher Education and why many consider it the gravedigger of universities as we know them today? Does it envisage the abolition of university autonomy?
Vouchers for financing
First, changes could be found in the new Law on Higher Education that would allow foreign universities to open their branches in Serbia - and that without the previously implemented accreditation procedure, which is mandatory for Serbian state and private higher education institutions. Then, foreign universities would receive subsidies that would enable Serbian students to receive scholarships at these institutions.
Back in November, the Government of Serbia tried to push through this solution, from which abandoned after a strong response from the academic community and strike threats. However, the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, criticized the government for giving in easily and announced that it would not end there.
It is also speculated that students will be offered vouchers and will be able to choose whether to study at public or private higher education institutions. It is feared that the new law would derail a three-year funding battle by state universities and undo what student blockades have achieved on the issue.
"According to the regime's plans, the new law foresees a whole set of provisions that would significantly reduce the management and financial autonomy of faculties and colleges, as well as provisions that would allow foreign faculties to enter our educational space without any accreditation in Serbia and with funding from the state budget", writes Jelena Teodorović, a professor at the Faculty of Pedagogical Sciences in Jagodina, in the author's text for "Danas".
There is talk of introducing vouchers as a way of financing higher education, which would apply to both state and private universities.
"The strong fight for funding through vouchers will only worsen the already alarming situation - faculties will insist that studies become faster and easier, which will result in worthless knowledge and worthless diplomas in both the state and private sectors," says Teodorović.
Furthermore, as this professor says, vouchers would bring about a different structure and cost of labor.
"Our mathematicians, naturalists and engineers are educated almost exclusively in the state sector. When there is no state money for laboratories at the Faculty of Chemistry and measuring instruments for exercises at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering (because that money will flow into business and management studies that cost little to the institution), the number and competence of graduates of basic sciences - engineers, doctors and all other demanding professions - will decrease," she writes and adds:
"This means that every now and then our bridges will fall into rivers, canopies on our heads (sound familiar?), and people will die from complications of bronchitis. The waiting lists for surgeries will be even longer, doctor's appointments will be longer. The economy will become even weaker and less competitive in the world market."
Threats to state universities
So far, there is no official confirmation that any of the above is in the works. Nevertheless, the impression is that the dark forebodings are justified, especially due to the constant statements of the President of Serbia, who has been announcing a showdown with the state faculties for months.
Vučić also commented on the current situation at higher education institutions at the National Assembly in Niš on Saturday (May 17), saying that many young people have been misled, manipulated by various tricks from social networks and by some professors, to whom he said "they will not get money until they start doing their work".
The head of state has repeatedly expressed his desire to strengthen the private education sector in Serbia.
"Private faculties have proven to be much more stable, much more serious than faculties and universities that want to provide knowledge and education to people. Private property has proven to be property that manages capacities much better than state property. In state property, as well as in social property, everyone thinks they have the right to use all rights, but they have no obligations, they treat the state as the last hole in the pipe," said Vučić at the time.
How to tame the university
Although the most vocal, Vučić is not the only one from the ranks of the Serbian Progressive Party who has been talking about for months reprisals against state universities.
Similarly, in an author's text for "Politics", MP Vladimir Đukanović proposed, ironically calling on students to persevere in the blockades as long as possible and thus abolish state universities.
"It is necessary to create as much competition as possible, to have as many universities as possible, to have faculties compete in the quality of the teaching program, and to no longer have a system: radio, no radio - the radio plays for me", stated Đukanović.
"I understand what the idea is, since the government cannot currently control the faculties", Ljubodrag Savić, a professor at the Faculty of Economics in Belgrade, told "Vreme" earlier about the mention of the privatization of the faculties. "Political confrontations exist in every country, but we try to solve these problems in an inadequate way."
The former rector of Belgrade University, Ivanka Popović, was not surprised by the new attack on the university, although she said that the talk of "privatization" was too demagogic even for the circumstances in Serbia. And yet "it is in the spirit of what the ruling party has been doing for a very long time."
"Just as they want to privatize healthcare, they also want to privatize education, with the aim of making money. They do not understand that the right to education is a basic right and there is probably no country in the world that does not have a state education system," she told "Vreme".
Some of the professors are of the opinion that the student blockades, at this moment, contribute to "the idea of the regime to destroy the state universities".
"Instead of getting the demands fulfilled, we got inspections, fines, reduced budgets, criminal charges, threats of salary suspensions and the possibility that all budget students will switch to self-financing. Although the fight is waged to preserve institutions, the consequence may be their collapse. And that's not because the students were wrong, but because they - unconsciously - chose a form of resistance that was easier to instrumentalize against themselves. The problem is not in the moral correctness of the blockades, but in their real the consequences, which I admit, I wasn't even aware of at first, so I assume that neither were the students," said Vanja Bajović, a professor at the Faculty of Law in Belgrade, in an interview for "Danas".
The Rector is also part of the Working Group.
Meanwhile, the government is attacking faculties and university professors on all fronts. First, the outgoing government of Miloš Vučević passed a decree according to which university teachers were no longer paid for 20 hours of teaching and 20 hours of research per week, but the ratio was changed to 35 to 5 in favor of teaching. Since there are no classes, professors receive only 12,5 percent of their salary, or, according to some reports, about 20.000 dinars per month.
In parallel with the attacks on the existential level, a fierce campaign is being waged against professors in the regime media. The infamous champion in the number of tabloid headlines is the rector of the University of Belgrade, Vladan Đokić, who is not spared by the media or the progressives. The Minister for Public Investments Darko Glišić, for example, has repeatedly called for the rector's arrest.
Although Vladan Đokić has been the target of attacks for months, the Government appointed the rector of Belgrade University on May 8 as a member of the Working Group that should prepare the Draft Law on Higher Education.
In addition to Rector Đokić, members of the Working Group include the rector of the University of Novi Sad, Dejan Madić, as well as the president of the Student Conference of Universities of Serbia (SKONUS), Margareta Smiljanić - a student who became known to the public after the case of the SNS call center before the elections in December 2023.
The headquarters of a non-governmental organization called the Center for Education and Development of Youth in Belgrade (CEROB) served as a place where money was paid for work in the call center of the Serbian Progressive Party in December 2023, CINS revealed at the time.
As already mentioned, the Working Group is headed by Minister Dejan Vuk Stanković, and his deputy is academician and Minister of Science, Technological Development and Innovation Bela Balint.
The composition of the Working Group has already met with criticism from a part of the university community, which pointed out that Đokić is the only representative of our largest and oldest university, and that there are several people on the list who were also signatories of support for Aleksandar Vučić before the previous elections.
Sources: Vreme/Danas
