The months-long crisis at universities in Serbia got a new page written on Tuesday: the leaders of the State University in Novi Pazar, accompanied by private security, tried to evict the blockaded students. Who is behind everything and who are the university officials who call the masked private security for help
Professor's name Dr. Zane Dolicanin, rectors State University in Novi Pazar (DUNP), in recent months it appears more and more often in the context protest, student petitions and sharp public discussions about the state of higher education in Sandzak. While her professional biography records a rich academic career, today she plays a role in a serious social and institutional crisis.
Besides her, on Tuesday (July 29) Milovan Bratić, vice-chancellor of DUNP, was in the center of attention, along with a few other members of the administration, who together with masked members of private security stormed the faculty and expelled the students in the blockade.
These are not the first and only leaders of higher education institutions who, in the last few months, have invaded the faculties and tried to forcefully expel the blocked students.
A similar thing happened on Faculty of Sports and Physical Education in Novi Sad, and on Faculty of Philology in Belgrade.
From a brilliant student to a rector
Zana Dolicanin graduated in medicine at an extremely early age - she entered the faculty at the age of 16 and graduated at the age of 22, according to Free Media. She began her scientific career in 2001 at the Faculty of Medicine in Pristina (with temporary headquarters in Kosovska Mitrovica), and gained international experience at the Shiga Institute of Pathology in Japan and in postdoctoral programs in Bordeaux, as a scholarship holder of the French Ministry of Education.
She has been employed at the State University in Novi Pazar since 2009. There, she headed the Department of Biomedical Sciences and was vice-rector before being elected rector in October 2022, with a term of office until 2025.
As a member of the Republic Commission for Accreditation since 2022, she also participated in quality control processes study programs throughout Serbia.
Criticism, support, then accusations against the student
It has been turbulent since the beginning of the blockade on DUNP. Soon after the beginning of the blockades at the other universities, the students supported their colleagues, but then in mid-January news arrived that they were abandoning the protest.
As the media reported at the time, no one put pressure on the students, but at the same time, a petition was launched for the dismissal of rector Zana Dolicanin, which was signed by more than two thousand professors and other University employees, intellectuals, cultural and social workers and citizens from Novi Pazar and other cities in Serbia.
The signatures were forwarded to the Ministry of Education, which was expected to react urgently "to solve the enormous problems" at that higher education institution.
The petition was initiated by Dr. Nadija Rebronja, assistant professor at the Department of Philological Sciences at DUNP, at the end of December last year. It demanded the immediate dismissal of Rector Dolicanin "due to the collapse of academic standards and unacceptable attitude towards employees".
The requirements for settling the "alarming situation" at the National Forestry and Rural Development were defined at the time in nine points.
Reform of the University in accordance with academic norms, improvement of working conditions, accreditation of study programs, better representation of students' interests, then, the end of autocracy, a complete change of the University's leadership, the end of mistreatment of employees, the promotion of meritorious teachers, the reform of the student parliament, the return of lecturers who left DUNP due to pressures and the end of hiring retired professors from other universities are also demanded.
Docent Rebronja accused Rector Dolicanin of "persecuting dissenters and making politically motivated decisions."
After the petition, the rector supported the students in the blockade, but then there was a twist: in February, in an open letter, she accused the students in the blockade of the State University in Novi Pazar and the trade union organization of usurping the space and right to work of the employees and students who oppose the blockade.
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Open letter from the rector
In an open letter in February 2025, Rector Dolicanin repeated the claims about the "violent invasion" of students and unknown academics, emphasizing that teachers, associates and administrative services have not been able to enter the university since the beginning of the blockade, which she considers to be a unique case in Serbia, she stated at the time.
The rector accused Senad Ganić, a professor and member and representative of the "Nezavisnost" union in the DUNP Senate, of instructing students to take over the management of the university, calling his actions "political and personal". She stated that the union is no longer representative, but that it continues with "destructive activities".
In an open letter, she appealed, among other things, to the state authorities to strictly apply the laws so as not to send the message to young people that they can occupy public institutions.
Student Support 2.0
Then, at the beginning of March, Dolicanin, accompanied by vice-rector Milorad Bratić, appeared in Pionirski Park as a sign of support for "students who want to learn" who pitched tents there.
The latest wave of student protests is not the first in which the disagreement of part of the academic community with Rector Dolicanin surfaced.
In an interview in September 2024 for the Free Media portal, she made a series of claims and criticisms against the "Nezavisnost" Trade Union, which later reacted to those allegations.
New resignation request
Students in the blockade also said on Tuesday (July 29) that they want the rector's resignation at DUNP.
One of them, Amar Ličina, told "Vreme" that "as of today, the whole of Serbia is replacing Zana Dolicanin".
The Academic Plenum assessed on Tuesday that the intrusion of masked persons into the State University in Novi Pazar represents a brutal attack on basic democratic values, on the physical integrity of students and, most dangerously, on the very essence of university autonomy, which requires an immediate investigation and the resignation of those responsible.
The plenum announced that the presence of DUNP rector Zana Dolicanin with police officers leaves no doubt that the action was directly "orchestrated from the top of the university administration, with political support and state logistics."
With that act, Dolicanin showed not only moral weakness, but also a complete inability to function within the academic community, stated the Academic Plenum and warned:
"If the academic community does not protect students in Novi Pazar now, tomorrow masked people in black will 'put out fires' in the name of the authorities in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Niš and Kragujevac."
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Who is Milovan Bratic?
Apart from Zana Dolicanin, Milovan Bratić, who is with masked members of private security, is again in the center of attention. broke into college on Tuesday.
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Despite the videos showing that the university was invaded by people in black with hoods and caps, Bratić denied such allegations. His statements have previously conflicted with the facts or been otherwise disputed, writes "Danas".
In April of this year, he told the blocked students that if they wait for the fulfillment of their demands and do not attend classes, they will have to repeat the year, which means that "they will not be on the budget and will not be able to receive student scholarships."
In March of this year, as the newly elected vice-chancellor of DUNP, he visited the so-called students who want to study in Belgrade's Pioneer Park.
Where was he (was he) engaged?
Bratić was dean of the Niš Faculty of Sports and Physical Education until the middle of last year, in his third term, although the Anti-Corruption Agency recommended that he be dismissed in 2017, because he was in a conflict of interest several times, writes "Danas".
In March 2017, the Agency determined that he violated the law when, three years earlier, as dean of the Faculty, he concluded a cooperation agreement with the Judo and Sambo club "Kinezis", whose founder and representative he is, as well as that he employed the coach of that club, Miroslav Miljković, as a janitor at the Faculty, without informing the Agency that he was in a conflict of interest.
He also, it is further stated in the Agency's decision, violated the law because he did not inform it about the suspected existence of a conflict of interest when the Senate of the University of Niš, of which he was a member as dean of the Faculty of Sports, elected his daughter Anđela Bratić as a member of the Professional Ethics Committee of that University, writes "Danas".
His engagement as a professor at the Faculty of Sports Sciences of the Pan-European University Apeiron in Banja Luka in 2013 was contrary to the Law on the Agency for the Fight against Corruption and the Law on Higher Education, because he did not receive the "approval of the competent authority" for that, the Agency stated.
In the criminal report against Bratić, submitted to the Basic Public Prosecutor's Office in Niš in 2013, due to the alleged abuse of the position of a responsible person, it was stated that, in addition to being employed at the Faculty of Sports Sciences at the Pan-European Apeiron University in Banja Luka, he was also employed at the Faculty of Niš, as well as at the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports in East Sarajevo.
"Danas" then wrote that the application stated that he is allegedly employed full-time at the state faculties in Niš and East Sarajevo and that he "receives two full salaries".
For both work engagements in Bosnia and Herzegovina, he did not receive the consent of the Senate of the University, which is required by the Law on Higher Education and the Statute of the University.
Bratić, however, previously told "Danas" that he is not in a permanent employment relationship at the faculties in Niš and East Sarajevo and that he does not receive two full salaries.
At the university in Banja Luka, "he does not work at all, but only sometimes teaches by invitation".
He added that he is employed at those faculties only up to 30 percent of the working time, as required by law.
However, he admitted that he did not have the consent of the Senate of the University of Nis to work at the faculty in East Sarajevo and Banja Luka.
What does the official biography say?
In Bratićeva official biography it is stated that he was born in 1958 in Nevesinje, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, that he graduated from high school in Sarajevo, and that he worked as an active military member in the JNA from 1977 to 1991.
Graduated in 1989 in Niš at the Faculty of Philosophy, Department of Physical Education. He completed his master's studies at the Faculty of Physical Education in Novi Sad, and his doctoral studies at the Faculty of Physical Education in Belgrade.
He worked at the Faculty of Sports and Physical Education in Niš since 1994.
He was the vice-president of the Sports Federation of Serbia and the selector of the student judo team with which he participated in the Universiade in Belgrade in 2010 and Shen Zhen in 2012, as well as in the World University Championship in Moscow in 2008.
He held the position of president of the Judo Federation of Serbia, and was also a member of the executive board of the Olympic Committee of Serbia.
Which other faculty leaders stood against the students?
Apart from DUNP, a partly similar scenario played out at some other faculties as well.
That is at the end of April 2025 Patrick Dryd, dean of the Novi Sad Faculty of Sports and Physical Education, broke into the faculty and locked the doors to the students.
The dean then allegedly called the police, and after several hours of protest by students in front of the building, he allowed them to enter and negotiate. The students in the blockade then continued with their own actions.
And private students Faculty of Computer Science had problems with the administration. A few days before the ruckus at the Novi Sad DIF, RAF students received threats of a ban on taking exams, as well as temporary or permanent expulsion from the faculty.
In the email, which was signed by the president of the council of that faculty, Dragan Stojanović, the students were asked to submit a signed statement to the administration that they would not make teaching at the faculty more difficult.
"If the students in the blockade leave the illegally occupied premises, I will cancel the emergency decision, I will publicly thank them and invite them to talk," the email reads. It is added that students can submit their signatures individually, if they do not do so as a group with Students in Blockade.
The students then stopped the physical blockades of that higher education institution.
Only a few days before the events in Novi Pazar, students of the Faculty of Philology in Belgrade got into trouble with the administration.
Dean Iva Draškić Vićanović gave them a deadline on Tuesday, July 22, to leave the building by 16 p.m.
As reported by FoNet, the management of this faculty told the students that there is no more sleeping in the building because everything has to be prepared for the entrance exams.
At the beginning of July, there was also an incident at the Law Faculty of the University of Belgrade, when the police, in equipment for breaking up demonstrations, tried to break into that higher education institution on the night between June 2 and 3.
End of blockades or continuation of protests?
Blockades of faculties in Serbia began soon after the roof of the railway station in Novi Sad falls. Massive protests followed. protests, blockade of all state and individual private faculties.
The students were given new deadlines for the end of the blockades month after month under the threat of losing the year, scholarships, places in student dormitories, budget funding... In the meantime, teaching and examination activities have started, entrance exams are being held, but part of the students in the blockade are firm in their attitude that they will not give up, while the management of individual faculties are trying to break the blockades.
Novi Pazar students on Tuesday supported by colleagues and citizens in places throughout Serbia, and for Thursday, July 31, a new big protest was announced in Belgrade.
Source: Vreme/Danas/FoNet
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