President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić he called the state of affairs at the State University in Novi Pazar a "piggy bank". Study at UNIRSM these days are forcibly expelled from the institutions that exist because of them. In Serbia, the overall situation has been simmering for months, and lately it has been getting worse.
For the media close to the authorities, however, something else is currently the biggest problem and scandal.
At the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade, one of the questions on entrance exam it read: "What are the demands of students in the blockade?".
Pro-regime newspapers are united in their outrage over this issue. Their main concern is what happened to them freshmen who do not know the demands of "terrorist blockaders" and whether this question is an indication that they cannot enroll in the faculty, that this institution accepts only future blockaders.
Tošković from MASA and aimless blockaders
Oliver Tošković, a professor at the Department of Psychology of the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Belgrade, together with his colleagues Sanja Grbić and Goran Opačić, is the author of the controversial general information test, "Danas" reported.
The regime media focused primarily on Tošković, trying to discredit him.
"By the way, Tošković is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Philosophy and is part of MASE (a network of various opposition professors)," writes "Informer", and that his goal and "similar ones" are obviously "to enroll the new generation in order to get money from them, and then to block their studies again. And who will return the wasted years to young people, and their parents the money for studying and all other expenses, is obviously less important to the ideologues of the blockaders and losers."
This tabloid goes on to explain in its own style why the issue of the students' demands, "which for any sane person is a scandal of unprecedented proportions", is controversial.
"First of all, by now it has become clear to everyone that even the blockers themselves do not know what their goals are, nor do they have a program. It is interesting that no one has yet become clear about who exactly the blockers are, nor who they support. It is not entirely clear what they stand for," claim from "Informer".
72 percent of freshmen knew the correct answer
The disputed question was part of the general information test for Psychology studies at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade, "Danas" reported.
"Student protests and blockades began in November 2024 with four basic demands. Which of the above does not belong to those demands," read the "scandalous" question.
The answers offered were:
1) publication of the entire documentation concerning the reconstruction of the railway station in Novi Sad, which is currently unavailable to the public;
2) formation of a transitional (expert) government, of limited duration, which would establish conditions for fair and honest elections;
3) confirmation by competent authorities of the identity of all persons who are suspected of having physically attacked students and professors, as well as initiation of criminal proceedings against them;
4) dismissal of criminal charges against arrested and detained students at protests, as well as suspension of already initiated criminal proceedings and
5) increase of allocated funds for state faculties in the amount of 20 percent.
The correct answer is the formation of a transitional (expert) government, which was chosen by 72 percent of candidates, that is, 329 out of 457 who took the test.
Professor Tošković: "What are you going to ask if not that?"
Professor Oliver Tošković told "Danas" that this is an excellent result and that it shows that the question was easy.
Explaining why this issue was on the agenda, Tošković said that student blockades and protests are one of the most important socio-political events that have happened in our country in the last ten or more years.
"What are you going to ask if not that, it was expected that such a question would be found in the test. The second reason is that the blockades directly concern the universities and faculties that these young people enroll in, and the candidates themselves also participated in the blockades of high schools, so the whole event is current and of great importance," the professor pointed out.
Response to manipulating requests
"It is not important that we ask about the date, whether the blockades started in November or December, but some essential information, such as what was the reason (the fall of the canopy), so that they understand what is happening, and one of the important things that show understanding is the basic demands from which it started. The reason for this question is that the demands were manipulated in the media, especially the pro-government ones. Even the representatives of the government did not know which ones had already honored the students' demands that they had not highlighted," stressed Tošković.
He explained that they deliberately did not put a request to announce the election, so as not to confuse someone, that is, so that the question would not be too difficult.
"It could also have been asked, for the candidate to distinguish initial from later requirements, but that would have been a more difficult question, implying that someone understands the event even more specifically. We thought that the question should be easier, and we included among the offered answers something that was never a student's request," said one of the authors of the test.
It is normal to find politics in such a test
As some see the controversial issue as a way of politicizing the university, Tošković explains that the test of general information implies being informed about different areas, which includes politics.
"Forbidding questions about politics in the general information test is a dictatorship. We are a social and humanities faculty, we deal, among other things, with social phenomena, and this, as I have already said, is the biggest socio-political upheaval that has happened in Serbia probably since October 5. Not asking something about it would mean closing our eyes to reality and hiding the truth," said the professor.
Tošković added for "Danas" that it is politicization "when you promote parties at the university, when you introduce private security and expel students from the university, it is politicization when the president insults the rector, and it is not politicization when you, at the faculty dealing with socio-political and humanistic topics, ask questions about current events."
Source: Danas/Informer
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