SAR Report: Authorities in Serbia Violently Stifling Students’ Protests, University’s Autonomy

Protest in Belgrade on March 15 (BETAPHOTO/EMIL VAS)

The New York-based international association Scholars at Risk (SAR), in its report about the state of academic freedom on Sept. 16, placed Serbia among the countries where the authorities have violently stifled the students’ protests and resorted to measures that undermined the autonomy of the university, which included denying funding and termination of employment of professors who supported the students’ protests.

As the illustration of the pressure against academic personnel for supporting the students’ protests, the report listed the case of termination of employment of Jelena Kleut, an associate professor of the Department of Media Studies of the School of Philosophy in Novi Sad, and of Vladimir Mihic, an associate professor of the Department of Psychology of the same school. SAR has stated that Jelena Kleut had fulfilled all the formal and professional conditions for being appointed, but the Senate of the Novi Sad University has refused to confirm her appointment and, several months later, they also refused to re-appoint Mihic, who was also an active supporter of the students’ protests.

The report further stated that the State University in Novi Pazar, without prior announcement, changed the procedure for enrollment exactly at the time when the students took part in a several-days-long march, thus complicating the enrollment for students who took part in the protest. Several students subsequently received information that their status as students had been terminated, the report reads.

In the report, titled Free to Think 2026, SAR declared that the police raided the Rectorate of the Belgrade University on March 31 this year and confronted the students who were protesting their presence, despite the Serbian law prohibiting the police from entering the university premises without invitation from the management. As an example of resistance despite pressure, the report cited that teachers and staff at the universities throughout Serbia had risked their jobs to express solidarity with the students who faced increasingly strict measures implemented by the state.