The representatives of the students of the Faculty of Political Sciences (FPN) have announced a blockade of the faculty tomorrow at 9 a.m. due to the sudden reduction of budget places for students in higher years of study.
Representatives of student coalitions DEMOSxUSSR as well as ESFxTIM called on FPN students to come to the blockade of the faculty tomorrow at 9 a.m. due to the sudden reduction of budget places for students of high school years.
Namely, according to the final ranking lists, budget places for most majors were significantly reduced, regardless of the fact that students below the line had conditions for studying on the budget.
This change has significantly damaged some courses, such as the "international relations studies" course, where about 76 students meet the condition for a budget position.
In this course, there were 60 budget places available for students entering the third and fourth year of study. Now, according to the final faculty ranking, that number has been reduced to 35.
What do the student representatives say?
The student organization DEMOS, currently the leading organization at the Faculty of Political Sciences, made an announcement on this occasion.
"Dear colleagues, today we learned that the number of budget places has been significantly reduced, without prior notice to students. On this occasion, we invite all students to gather tomorrow, 08.10 at 9:00 a.m. in front of the Faculty building, in order to express their dissatisfaction with this decision. Our main request is that the number of budget places does not change compared to last year, as well as that the degree of co-financing remains the same compared to last year," the organization DEMOS wrote on its Instagram account.
A coalition consisting of student organizations European Student Forum (ESF) and TIM also called for a protest.
"If it turns out that the allegations are true and that budget places for several years of study have been reduced this year, we invite you to the blockade of the Faculty of Political Sciences tomorrow at 9 a.m. Currently, acting dean Darko Nadić states that enrollments for the academic year 2024/25. were not adopted", these organizations state.
Letter to the Faculty Management
Not long after the decision to cancel about 30 percent of the budget places at the faculty reached the students, an informal group of students issued a statement addressed to the faculty administration.
"Today we were informed that about 30% of the budget places in all majors and in all years of undergraduate studies will be abolished. "These decisions were not made in time for a few days before the start of the new school year. In addition, we did not receive an explanation as to why the faculty is doing poorly financially and why the austerity measures apply only to students and not to the teaching staff," the announcement states.
For this reason, a blockade of the faculty building will be organized tomorrow, which will continue until two basic demands of the students are met, this informal group claims.