Nis Free University Calls on Rectorate to Come out against New Higher Education Legislation

Protest in Nis (BETAPHOTO/SASA DJORDJEVIC)

The Nis Free University, which brings together university professors, researchers and fellows who support the student protests in Serbia, on May 21 asked the University of Nis to come out "publicly and unambiguously" against the Decree on the norms and standards for the conditions of the work of universities and a controversial initiative for the adoption of a new Law on higher education.

"At a time when legislation is being prepared under our very eyes that threatens to destroy the foundation of higher public education in Serbia, silence is no longer neutrality, but complicity," the representatives of the Free University stressed.

The statement notes that the new legislation on higher education, which is being drafted by the Education Ministry with Minister Vuk Dejan Stankovic at the helm, heralded complete centralization, the elimination of institutional autonomy and essentially the subordination of the university to political will. "Universities would no longer pick their own rectors. The university leadership would be directly controlled by executive authority. Faculties would become degree mills and education -- a commodity with no guarantee of quality," the statement read.

In less than two days, more than 2,600 members of the academic community signed a petition against the adoption of this legislation. "We note with indignation that, despite months of student protests, the rectorate of the University of Nis has not come out either in support of the students or in defense of fundamental academic principles. Now, too, when a law is in the works that would mean the end to the university's autonomy, the rectorate is again silent," the statement stressed.