Serbia

Academe, Jul/Aug 1999 by Milicevic, Goran

Even before the bombing, political repression and the economic impact of international sanctions had ravaged the universities.

SINCE WORLD WAR II, THE status of academic freedom in Serbia has never been reassuring. In the social sciences, where the Marxist point of view was not only dominant but actually required for many years, academic freedom was especially limited. Yet these ideological limitations did not hamper us that much, since just about any topic could be chosen for research as long as we added the obligatory mantra: "The Marxist Critique of (Whatever the Topic)." Alternatively, we could describe our research as "(Whatever the Topic) in a Self-Governing Society" in deference to the former Yugoslavian state's insistence on the originality of its "third way"-development of a selfgoverning or self-managing society.

Much greater obstacles to creating a serious academic system were the relatively low level of societal development, the lack of established academic traditions, the small percentage of the population reached by higher education, and the relatively small size of the country. In addition to those problems, the system overambitiously tried to cover as many fields of scientific research as possible and thus ended up lacking the critical mass required for major breakthroughs in any of them.

Yet as the economy grew, as a larger share of the population got access to higher education, and as the ideological grip of the ruling communist party loosened, the status of academic freedom gradually improved. These changes accelerated after the fall of the Berlin Wall, although the collapse of eastern European communism had a contradictory influence on Yugoslavia. On one side, it led to the collapse of the single-party political system and initiated the process of democratization. But on the other, it destroyed the balance established by the bipolar world, provoking the violent disintegration of Yugoslavia as a multiethnic country. These dramatic events led to protests against the regime by students and others in the academic community over the past decade. In retaliation, the government moved in 1992 to reduce the autonomy of the nation's universities; in 1998, it completely abolished that autonomy.

By the nineties, the regime was no longer interested in ideological purity; it wanted only to stay in power. Its goal, therefore, was to regain complete political control over the university, perceived on all sides as a potential greenhouse for democratic processes and ideas. To that end, in May 1998, it put through the Law on Universities, which eliminated academic self-governance and entitled the government to appoint all university officials. Deans were given discretionary rights to hire and fire all the staff, including full professors. In addition, everyone had to sign new employment contracts, which were widely viewed as de facto oaths of loyalty to the regime. Some two hundred faculty members refused to sign them and several dozen suffered harsh penalties, including dismissal, as a result.

Needless to say, these circumstances limited academic freedom and degraded the academic profession. The regime could not have demonstrated more clearly that it was uninterested in the quality of education. It saw higher education more as an ornament than as a vital economic resource, and loyalty was all that was required. The quality of education in this aberrant system became a mere side effect.

Many deans have abused the vast powers given to them under the system. Some dissertation topics, such as "Media Manipulation During Elections," suddenly became unacceptable. Commenting on this topic, Vladimir Stambuk, dean of the faculty of political sciences in Belgrade, who is also vice president of the Serbian parliament and a high-ranking official of the Yugoslav United Left, said, "As long as I am the dean of this faculty, such a topic will not be suitable for a Ph.D. thesis." Dissident professors, especially those who had refused to sign the new employment contracts, were barred from teaching or taken off the payroll. Several dozen were suspended, and more than fifteen were fired. Some deans even went so far as to hire uniformed thugs as security guards to check identity or student cards. The guards prevented suspended professors and students from entering the faculty buildings, and ended by beating students protesting peacefully against a dean of the faculty of philology, who had reduced the number of departments from fourteen to six, fired the most distinguished professors, and brought the faculty to the verge of collapse.

In such an atmosphere of fear and intimidation, academic activities could not flourish. The authorities, interested in preventing students from joining professors in protesting the Law on Universities, used various excuses, including the threat of NATO bombardment in October 1998, to shorten the time available for lectures. And the semester was shortened an additional two weeks during the 1999 New Year's holidays to diminish the possibility of student protests.