On the occasion of the Initiative to evaluate the constitutionality of the Law on Science and Research, representatives of Masa held two meetings last week. We spoke with representatives of the University of Belgrade as well as the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development. In the form of a response to the invitation for an interview sent by SANU, Masa received the opinion of the Executive Board, which states that SANU insists on its own autonomy of opinion, but does not object to Masa, in accordance with his own beliefs, continuing with the activities of submitting the Initiative to the Constitutional Court. to the court.
The meeting at the rectorate of the University of Belgrade held on March 9, 2020 was attended by rector Ivanka Popović and vice-rector for science Petar Marin, as well as members of the Mass Gazela Coordination Board Pudar Draško, Đorđe Pavićević and Oliver Tošković. The rector pointed out that at this moment UB cannot support the Mass Initiative. As the main reason, she pointed out that Masa has not yet used all the institutional mechanisms so that the bodies of the University could decide on the Initiative. She noted that the University of Belgrade, during the adoption of the Law on Higher Education in 2017, requested that institutes that are members of the university be given greater autonomy through a different choice of governing body, but that this proposal was not taken into consideration at the time. In the conversation, she referred us to the Scientific Councils of the institutes that are members of the UB and to the Councils of the UB Institutes. Nevertheless, she pointed out that in principle she supports the activities of the Mass and that she will decide on the possible support of our actions in the future on a case-by-case basis. In the conversation, other issues were raised and, among other things, we informed the rector about our further activities related to accreditation, university regulations and the possible adoption of a new Law on Universities, as well as our concern about events in a number of institutes, especially in the Institute of Philosophy and social theory and the Vinca Institute for Nuclear Sciences. In principle, it was agreed that UB and Massa should coordinate future actions more.
The conversation at the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development was held on March 10, 2020. On behalf of the Ministry, the meeting was attended by the State Secretary for Science Vladimir Popović, 3 Assistant Ministers, the Science Advisor to the Prime Minister of the RS and the Ministry's lawyer, while the Mass was represented by members of the Coordinating Committee board members Galjina Ognjanov, Đorđe Pavićević, Vladan Čokić, Milutin Stepić and colleague Dejan Pavlović, a member of Massa. In the conversation, the differences in the understanding of autonomy, especially in the domain of organization and management as well as scientific work, and differences in the understanding of the status of the institute were highlighted. State Secretary Vladimir Popović emphasized the position of the Ministry that the law does not violate the autonomy of scientific work and that the legal status of an institute is different from that of a university. The conversation lasted almost two hours with a lot of polemics and no final agreement of positions. State Secretary Popović pointed out that he follows the work of Masa, reads our announcements and is interested in the views of individual representatives of Masa. The conversation proceeded with mutual respect, agreement on certain issues, and the principled will to continue discussions on issues on which there is currently no consensus, especially when it comes to the way scientific and academic institutions are organized and worked, was also expressed. The representatives of Masa announced that they will continue with their Initiative, because no concrete progress has been achieved on this issue, which the State Secretary accepted as our right.
After the meetings, the Masa Coordination Board decided to send a request to all the Scientific Councils of member institutes of the University of Belgrade to give their opinion on the Initiative for the Constitutional Review of the Law on Science and Research, and will continue to inform members and the public about this topic.
