Network of Academic Solidarity and Engagement (MASS) organized the discussion that took place on Tuesday, 15.3.2022. year, in the Polet gallery. The intention was to initiate a broad academic discussion on the possible reform of legal acts and university regulations that regulate the manner, procedure and minimum conditions for acquiring a title and establishing a working relationship as a teacher at the University of Belgrade. (and other universities in Serbia). The immediate reason for the reform of the procedures and conditions for elections to positions and the establishment of an employment relationship at the University of Belgrade are the increasingly frequent cases of elections in which various irregularities come to light. Many of these cases end up in public and in the courts, which causes damage to both individuals and the University of Belgrade. These problems often arise as a result of the vagueness and even contradictions of the procedures related to the selection to the profession. The goal of the eventual reform would be to reduce vagueness, contradictions, abuses and damage caused to individuals, and thus to the University of Belgrade.
The panel was moderated by prof. Dr. Dušan Pavlović, member of the KO MASA, while the participants were:
Danilo Vuković, associate professor of the Faculty of Law, BU
Vladimir Milić, general secretary of the BU Rectorate
Iva Draškić Vićanović, dean of the Faculty of Philology, BU
In an open and substantive conversation in which the audience took part, several directions for future action in terms of reforming the existing procedures for selecting teachers and establishing a permanent employment relationship were crystallized:
1) It is necessary to initiate procedures for amending the Law on Higher Education and the regulations governing the manner and procedure for obtaining the title of teacher at the University of Belgrade. Some of the proposals that were heard at the panel were related to the introduction of a mandatory individual explanation when voting for the selection of teachers if voting against the proposal of the Election Commission. In addition, some of the participants of the forum proposed the complete exclusion of NNV from the process of making a decision on the selection of teachers, that is, it is sufficient for the selection decision to be made by the University's expert councils, which even now have the final say in the selection of teachers. Another possible amendment to the regulations governing the selection of teachers could refer to ethical and disciplinary responsibility for various abuses of the selection process. For both reforms, there are foundations in the existing regulations and ethical code of the University of Belgrade.
2) It is necessary to continue the discussion on the possibility of establishing a permanent employment relationship for teachers at Universities in Serbia before the election to the title of full professor. This can be arranged either linearly, by lowering the possibility of establishing a permanent employment relationship already at the time of selection to the position of docent or associate professor or by certain segments, for example with general subjects such as foreign languages. In this way, the pressure to advance to the rank of full professor with the basic motive of establishing a permanent employment relationship, which is often accompanied by the absence of the necessary motivation to continue a scientific career, would be reduced. On the other hand, in such circumstances, it would be possible to tighten the conditions for obtaining the highest title since it would be freed from the social component of permanent care for teachers (because this would already be solved with some of the lower titles).
Also, the possibility of permanent employment earlier would motivate high-quality students to stay at the university, since we are now increasingly in a situation, especially at technical faculties, that the best students go to the labor market, where they get far more favorable conditions when establishing an employment relationship, both in terms of finances and and in terms of establishing a permanent employment relationship.
In the end, establishing a permanent employment relationship in the late forties or fifties leads to a kind of infantilization of those who are in positions lower than regular professor, which seriously violates their dignity and labor rights.
