Belgrade university urges govt to meet student demands, unblock academic year

This Platform was presented during a meeting on April 30 between a University of Belgrade delegation, led by Rector Vladan Djokic, and Prime Minister Djuro Macut.

“Attempting to conduct teaching activities against the students’ will would violate their right to peaceful assembly in defense of public interest, which is guaranteed by the most important acts of international law. Moreover, such action would contradict principles of academic integrity and academic freedom, as well as the ethical principles that underpin our society,” reads the document published on the University website.

The document adds that such action would be practically unfeasible, which can be concluded from the experiences of all higher education institutions in Serbia where leadership attempted to hold classes under current conditions.

“The rector and deans have no mandate from students to negotiate the fulfillment of student demands, nor to end or modify the blockade. The University of Belgrade supports the initial student demands but does not participate in organizing blockades, nor can it suspend them,” reads the Platform signed by rector Vladan Djokic and 31 deans.

The document notes that the University and its faculties have acknowledged the situation created by the decision adopted at student plenaries while simultaneously supporting student demands and their right to peaceful protest, assembly, and expression of opinion.

“The rector and deans have neither legal mechanisms nor practical means to end the blockades, as student demands fall outside the jurisdiction of the rector and deans and relate to broader societal factors,” the University Platform states, recalling that the Ministry of Education, in its letter of December 25 last year, acknowledged the impossibility of conducting classes.

The University of Belgrade demands an immediate end to pressures on it and its members, particularly calling for the suspension of unannounced inspections by educational and financial inspectors, as well as audits by the State Audit Institution at its schools and colleges.

The University also demands an end to the media campaign against the rector, deans, students, and employees, and an end to the public threats and pressures directed at Serbia’s oldest and most prestigious higher education institution. Another demand includes the payment of all overdue salaries from the budget in full.

The Platform insists on revoking the amendment to the Decree on Standards and Norms for University and Faculty Operations Funded from the Budget, which unconstitutionally and illegally changes the structure of employee work obligations at higher education institutions.

It also calls for revoking the Government’s March 24 Conclusion, which illegally decided that higher education institutions will receive only partial funding for budgetary salaries of teachers and associates.

In its platform, the University of Belgrade also posed questions to the Serbian Government and Ministry of Education, with the first being whether and when dialogue with students blocking faculties will begin regarding their demands, to enable the continuation of the academic year.