MASA supports her colleague Biljana Aranđelović from the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture in Niš in her efforts to be elected to a higher position, as she has been meeting the legal requirements for such an election since 2014. She has been employed at the Faculty since 2009. as an assistant professor in the courses Art and Architecture, Contemporary Architecture and Architecture of Serbia of the 20th Century, which belong to the field of social and humanistic sciences.
Even though before 2014, she fulfilled the legal requirements for being elected to the title of associate professor - published a monograph for an influential international publishing house (Springer International Publishing) and works in the most prestigious world magazines in the field of history of architecture and art - she was again elected as an assistant professor. Five years after that, she also met the requirements for a full professor, and yet in 2019, she was chosen as an assistant professor for the third time.
In the official announcement of the decision-making body at the University of Nis, it is stated that colleague Aranđelović cannot advance in her career, because she does not have works on the SCI list, which includes scientific journals from natural and technical-technological sciences. Why is candidate Aranđelović required to submit articles from technical and technological sciences journals when she has been teaching subjects in the field of social and humanities for ten years, and she applied for a competition in the narrower scientific field of history of architecture and art, which belongs to the social and humanities? This interpretation of the conditions of the competition led to the discrimination of the candidate, for whom the university bodies set conditions that she could not fulfill. Unfortunately, it also led to the degradation of the professional reputation of colleague Aranđelović. The prohibition of discrimination during career advancement is an integral part of the Code of Professional Ethics of the University of Niš. We hope that this misunderstanding will be resolved quickly and that colleague Aranđelović will advance to a university title that faithfully maintains her academic qualities.
Mass Coordinating Committee
Belgrade, 23.12.2019.
