The Dean of the Belgrade Faculty of Agriculture, Vladan Bogdanović, stated that the attacks on University of Belgrade due to poor placement on Shanghai List "hypocritical", because scientific research in Serbia has been facing insufficient and unsystematic funding for years.
This year, the University of Belgrade was placed in the group from 501st to 600th place in the Shanghai list of the best universities, while last year it was ranked between 401st and 500th place.
Bogdanović estimated that the drop in the list is the result of pressure on the University and the conditions in which scientific work takes place.
According to Bogdanović, doing science in Serbia is largely a matter of the enthusiasm of individual researchers and research groups.
"This kind of hype is extremely hypocritical, because everyone who calls out the University today and yesterday must first look at whether they have any scientific activities in the past year or two. If they don't, then it is extremely hypocritical to call out the University for inaction or inactivity," Bogdanović told the FoNet agency.
No system access
He cited funding of science as one of the key problems, claiming that there is no systematic approach to that field in Serbia.
Bogdanovic said that after the initial "Prism" and "Ideje" programs, the Science Fund almost stopped announcing programs for multi-year research and mainly finances shorter, one-year projects.
"In a year, practically, you cannot carry out any more serious research, especially in agricultural sciences or in food science," Bogdanović assessed.
He added that the Ministry of Science allocates funds for material costs at a level that, as he stated, has remained practically unchanged since 2019 and today is not sufficient for more serious research.
"The Faculty of Agriculture maintained its ranking between 101st and 150th place in the field of food science and between 201st and 300th in agricultural sciences and has more than 40 research groups that share the available funds between different projects," said Bogdanović.
Classes are made up.
He rejected claims that blockades and suspension of classes affected this year's ranking of the University of Belgrade on the Shanghai list.
"During last year, in a certain way, classes were suspended, but the faculties continued with all other activities, including scientific research. The classes that were not held during the semester were subsequently realized during the last summer. The faculties normally carried out all the research they could do," said Bogdanović.
He assessed that the University will survive thanks to the enthusiasm and commitment of teachers and researchers, but said that without a clear and long-term system of financing science, it will be difficult to maintain the current results and international position.
"The biggest irony is that education and science are constantly collapsing, and now everyone is grasping for the placement on the Shanghai list as proof that something has gotten worse," said Bogdanović.
Source: FoNet
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