Serbia’s academics outraged over limits to research, disappointed by EU response

Academics in Serbia are up in arms over a sudden move by the government to limit the time university lecturers can spend on research. Previously allowed to spend 20 hours a week on research, they will now be limited to just five hours.

Critics of the new regulation point out that the move effectively invalidates the official accreditation of all public universities in Serbia, since this requires university staff to reserve half their working hours for research.

If implemented, the regulation would also make their participation in high-profile national and international projects impossible. 

According to Antun Balaž, research professor at the Institute of Physics Belgrade, a principal investigator receiving a European Research Council grant must commit to spend at least half their time on the project, while for a project funded through the Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia the commitment is at least 30% of their work-time. Both would now be impossible.

“This shows that nobody even thought for a moment before making this catastrophic policy change,” he said. “The fact that the government doesn’t understand the importance of research for higher education and their level of integration is mind-boggling, and demonstrates their incompetence.”

Milan Ivanov, a medical researcher at the University of Belgrade, also describes the change as “harmful for Serbian science,” adding that that it will “stagnate” if university staff cannot carry out research.

He and others point to the importance of research for high-quality tertiary education. Without research, Ivanov added, there will be little difference between a university professor and a schoolteacher.

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Out of the blue

The regulation was published without explanation in late March. It has since been publicly opposed by the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, which has asked the government to urgently rescind the regulation, because it “directly threatens” research, doctoral studies and the implementation of ongoing scientific projects. 

It is also being challenged by hundreds of academics, who have filed a motion asking the Constitutional Court to assess its legality. 

Those challenging the new regulation point out that it was issued by a technical, caretaker government, which is empowered only to carry on current affairs rather than adopt new general acts or other regulations. 

The government resigned on March 19 over its response to student protests, and the regulation was rubberstamped before the new government - led by the same party and mostly the same ministers - was formed last week. 

Critics of the regulation also say that such policy changes are supposed to be initiated by the National Council on Higher Education, and then only after consultations with the National Association of Universities, neither of which was the case here.

“This unilateral act was passed without prior public debate and clearly demonstrates ignorance of the functioning of the higher education system,” said Svetlana Stanarević, a member of the Network of Academic Solidarity and Engagement, which has called on all researchers working in government advisory roles to quit in protest at the new regulation. 

“One of the basic principles [of the system] is the unity of teaching and scientific research activities and their proportional relationship,” she added.

Serbia’s government has not responded to requests for comment.

Balaž and many others think the regulation targets academics because they have been largely supportive of mass student protests against corruption in Serbia, which have rocked the country since November.

“It is purely designed to punish university staff by drastically reducing their salaries, to stifle their resistance to growing authoritarianism, and to crush the academic community’s support for students and their fight against corruption and for deep societal changes,” he said.

International response

The international academic community is starting to voice its concern over the situation. For example, an open appeal for the international academic community to support Serbian students and professors was signed by some 4,500 academics in less than two weeks. 

But the EU institutions have remained largely silent. This has disappointed the Serbian academics involved in protests, who accuse the institutions of double standards.

“I am increasingly convinced that the EU [. . .] bears responsibility for the current situation in Serbia,” said Igor Stanković at the Institute of Physics in Belgrade, who is principal investigator on the Blessed and Ultimate-I Horizon projects. The EU’s tolerance of the current regime is in “stark contrast” to its stance on the previous government, he noted. “Their economic interests seem to take precedence over democratic values.”

On March 4, dozens of researchers who hold EU research grants in Serbia wrote to the EU institutions, calling on them to support the students’ demands for transparency, accountability and meaningful reforms in governance and higher education, in line with the EU accession criteria.

“Unfortunately, we have not received any response, not even an acknowledgment of receipt,” says Stanković, the lead signatory.

The only exception, he said, was Maria Leptin, president of the European Research Council. She thanked them for raising the challenges faced by the research community in Serbia and said that Commission services have assured her that they would answer.

A Commission spokesperson told Science|Business that it was following the current domestic political situation in Serbia closely. “Fundamental values are at the core of our common European project and need to be respected,” they said.  

This also applies to freedom of assembly as a fundamental right. “Citizen participation plays a vital role in the development of a healthy and democratic society, including for promoting transparency and accountability,” they went on. “All stakeholders [. . .] should find together a way forward in Serbia to advance reforms, particularly in strengthening rule of law, that are necessary for the European future of Serbia.”