In the first enrollment period for the 2026/2027 school year. year on University of Belgrade, all enrollment places are fully filled in four faculties: Faculty of Architecture, Faculty of Special Education and Rehabilitation (FASPER), Faculty of Sports and Physical Education and Faculty of Political Sciences (FPN).
However, the biggest competition for enrollment was not in these study programs, but in psychology, medicine and dentistry. There was great interest in both the Faculty of Economics and the Faculty of Organizational Sciences.
And it also happened that some majors in the field of technical sciences do not have enough candidates, regardless of the fact that employers are looking for experts in these fields the most. By comparing enrollment data with advertisements published on the Jobs website Infostud, it can be seen that the wishes and needs of young people labor markets they only partially match.
What do high school graduates want?
Enrollment of freshmen at the faculties of the University of Belgrade was completed in mid-July, and the general interest in studies is higher than last year. There were 17.000 applicants, which is 1000 more than last summer. However, interest in the faculties was not evenly distributed.
Photo: FoNet/Ognjen StevanovićThe most popular study programs are psychology, medicine, dentistry, architecture...
Thus, vacancies remained at a large number of higher education institutions. The least popular were the Faculty of Philology, Agriculture, Mining and Geology and Geography.
On the other hand, the competition was fierce for study programs in psychology, architecture, medicine and dentistry. In psychology, for example, an average of 4,2 high school graduates applied for one place. At the Faculty of Architecture, 647 candidates applied for 304 places.
The popularity of these programs is also great in other cities in the country. At dentistry in Novi Sad, 242 candidates applied for 52 places, that is, 4,7 of them per place. At the integrated medical studies in Kragujevac, 4,6 candidates applied for one budget position.
Does the demand for these study programs match the demand for experts in these fields on the labor market?
What does the market say?
Artificial intelligence is changing the way business is done in many areas, and traditional trades are experiencing a big rise due to the increasing demand for skilled workers. However, the market is oversaturated for certain jobs, which are performed by highly educated professional staff.
According to Infostud data, in the first six months of this year, 409 advertisements were published in the field of human resources, but they were open not only to psychologists, but also to candidates of other educational profiles. There were an average of 145 applications per advertisement. In the narrower category of psychology, only four advertisements were published, to which about 150 people applied.
At Infostud, they state that due to the small number of advertisements, this data does not represent the entire job market for psychologists, but it still shows that the number of directly advertised positions is significantly lower than the interest in studies.
Photo: Pixabay/StartupStockPhotosThe demand for staff from technical sciences is still high
As for medicine and dentistry, in the first half of the year, 515 health care ads were published on the Jobs Infostud website, which is almost the same as in the previous year, but the demand for dentists increased from 77 to 110.
In the economy category, in the same period of time, 225 advertisements were published, and each attracted an average of 79 applications.
A university degree is not enough
"That's why a degree in itself is often not enough for easy entry into the market. Practice, foreign languages, working with data, digital tools and specific business skills increasingly decide who will stand out among the candidates", writes Infostud.
A big change is visible in the IT sector, where the number of ads for specialists has dropped drastically. In the first six months of 2026, 1.633 IT advertisements were published compared to 2.508, as many as there were in the same period of the previous year.
It is especially difficult for young people without experience to enter, because there are fewer starting positions than during the period of accelerated growth of the IT industry.
However, for some technical areas, interest in market experts remains.
In contrast to the fact that construction faculties across the country were not the most popular choice, especially in smaller university centers, 903 construction and surveying ads were published on the Jobs Infostud website. There is also a great demand for machinists (736 ads).
"The data do not show that young people choose the wrong faculties, but that they often make decisions based on personal interests, the reputation of the profession and ideas about their future career, without enough information about real opportunities on the labor market," concludes Infostud.
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