Education minister, Belgrade University chief clash over enrollment

Belgrade University Rector Vlada Djokic said the university has done everything that it can to prepare to enroll the next generation of students but can’t invite applications because the government has not set the number of students whose studies are covered by the budget while Education Minister Dejan Vuk Stankovic said that only those university schools that make up classes will get enrollment quotas.

Rector Djokic told Nedeljnik weekly that government officials are telling the media that a decision will be taken only after the 2nd semester is completed and exams held. “That condition runs counter to regulations. It is not logical and is ill-intentioned. Enrollment for a new generation of freshmen does not depend on the end of the previous year’s semester when they completed their high school educations. Obviously, Belgrade University is being kept at a disadvantage compared to other state and private universities,” he said, adding that Belgrade University survived 2 world wars, states of emergency and occupation but was never under any similar systematic destruction by state officials.

Djokic said the final deadline to complete the school year is October 31.

Education Minister Vuk Stankovic said that university schools that do not make up classes won’t be able to enroll new students. He told the pro-government K1 TV that those colleges that do not “climb into the lifeboat” will wipe themselves off the academic map and warned that time is running out. “I think time is running out. This has been going on for too long and the stakes are huge – the survival of education,” he said, adding that everyone involved with universities should draw the line and see that the priority of all priorites is for Serbia to have a functional higher education system.