The Serbian government has adopted a conclusion, according to which faculties in protest will only be paid a part of their salaries, namely the one related to scientific research, professional, or artistic work of teachers and associates, while the full amount will be paid to non-teaching staff.
This applies to higher education institutions that are in the so called blockage, i.e. where lectures and exams are not held on accredited study programs in which students are enrolled and financed from the Serbian budget, the Ministry of Education announced.
The statement emphasizes that the Ministry, through supervision, will strive to ensure full respect for the Constitution and laws of Serbia and enable the exercise of the rights of everyone in higher education, primarily students.
The Ministry of Education once again called on students, as well as deans and rectors, not to deny the constitutionally guaranteed right to education to other students, as well as teaching staff who wish to continue teaching.
The statement states that, in accordance with the law, an inspection will begin tomorrow, during which the legality of the work of higher education institutions will be determined.
Recalling that four higher education institutions have announced that they have made decisions to go on strike, namely the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Physics and Medicine in Belgrade, as well as the Faculty of Medicine in Novi Sad, the Ministry indicates that an inspection will be carried out in these higher education institutions to determine the legality of the work during the strike.
The statement notes that during the inspection of the Faculty of Medicine in Belgrade, illegalities were identified in the form of failure to ensure the minimum work process, which includes the implementation of exams and consultative forms of teaching, and this faculty will be ordered to take measures with a deadline of three days to eliminate the illegalities.
Out of a total of 114 higher education institutions in Serbia, 68 or 59.6 percent responded to the Ministry’s inquiry on March 18.
Of those who responded to the survey, 38 or 33.3 percent informed the Ministry that they were not giving lectures due to blockades by informal groups of students.
