Students protests in Croatia and Serbia

One world - one struggle

According to Serbian High education Law, paragraph 3, its basic aims are - offering the opportunity to each person to achieve high education under same conditions, to have long life education and to immensely increase the number of high-educated citizens. However, students find that faculties are violating the law by enforcing inefficacious school reforms and increasing tuition fees


By LJILJANA SAMARDZIC
from Sombor, SERBIA


Discontent among students lasts already for a while. The protest began in 2006 and continues every next one. There were some pauses which are allegedly cause of student's numerous obligations at faculties, financial problems and the mood among colleagues, which has great impact.

Students who started protest in 2006 had come with following demands: "Since the beginning of October protests of Belgrade University students, who demand reduction of tuition fees, they are proceeded and from the end of October they demand equalization of Master degree with Serbian high level of education (VII/1)." Further is pointed out that protests are the consequence of student's difficult material position, which is also stated this year. This spring Serbian and Croatian students made contact because they became aware of the fact that they have same problem and similar demands. They are dissatisfied with "catastrophic policy which is being systematically enforcing on global and local level, not only in educational system but in all spheres of society".

Protests at Croatian faculties

On Monday, April 20 2009, hundreds of students from University of Zagreb, Faculty of philosophy, have engaged the building of faculty in order to blockade the lessons. Students have decided to block the building instead of solely protest because the public is fed up with protests and they see them as short term spectacle without serious consequences.

Protest was organized by Independent student's initiative whose spokesmen didn't want to go out in public in order to spare event from personalization. Each day philosophy students from Zagreb got more and more supporters among colleagues from different faculties and various Croatian cities: Split, Zadar, Osijek, Rijeka and Varazdin. Philosophy students from Zagreb had been supported even by faculty's directory, which was later labeled as hypocrisy by minister of education Dragan Primorac, since the directory consists of people who define and pay up student's tuition fees, the background of protest.

Croatian students, gathered by common goal, appeared harmoniously together for ten days. But then, on April 29, political sciences students had dropped the idea of protest. They were threatened with cancellation of exams so they voted the end of blockade on their Faculty. It seems that those students were stronger when it comes to struggle for personal interests. However, at the same time, philosophy students are staying unbeatable in their deeds - keeping blocking. About 120 professors from Faculty of philosophy in Zagreb had signed the letter of support to their students and some of them resigned. While blockade lasts, the lessons are kept on alternative locations. These young people are daily uploading their site with news, photographs, reports, video records, interviews and alike.

Serbian way

Protest had spread in Croatia but also in neighbor's country - Serbia. On Wednesday, April 29, Belgrade University students had protested. On the same day, Alliance of independent Serbian syndicates has raised as well. According to one of Independent student's initiative's spokesmen problem of workers and students has the same root - social inequality and demanding their rights.

Independent student's initiative says they have contacts with students in Croatia, members of their Independent student's initiative, so they are bounded. On the other hand, they have no contacts with other Serbian Universities. Serbian students also have policy of collective going in public.

Vladimir Simovic, a member of Independent student's initiative, thinks that response to protest in Belgrade was lame because of "dominant propaganda that knowledge is merchandise, that it is for sale and that there is no other option. Moreover, students are disappointed in their traditional spokesmen (official student's organizations) and they have lots of doubts, they don't believe in realization of any social victory in this "crazy world". Besides, in today social circumstances "most people are looking only after themselves", says Simovic. The only thing that lefts are hope in more successful protests in autumn and in greater student's awareness of tuition fees, how to pay them and rating.

Independent student's initiative stands that every citizen has right to free education since it is already paid through different official taxes. "We find that we, citizens, had already paid this public education, because it is "public" and it is financed by state, which is obligated to finance educational institutions via Ministry of education. Tuition fees paid by Serbian University's students are someone's profit and our thoughts are, plainly why, that this money is not spend on our education, but that it goes to someone's pocket.", says Simovic.

They stand that tuition fees are defined by the lump, by the faculty's prestige, not based on studying expenses. Students are claiming that, because it is considered as business secret, they didn't get an access to General file of high education institutions, which should consist of criteria for defining tuition fee rate.

Equal possibilities

One of students demands is abolition of rating when enrolling faculties and when they should get a status of budget financed students. A criterion of rating upon occasion of enrolment is the number of points from entrance examination. On that number of points is added summary of average marks from 4 high school grades. In few words, successful ones are financed from public budget and those less successful are paying whole tuition fee by themselves. According to fore mentioned paragraph 3, each person really has equal possibility and conditions: questions on entrance examination are the same, and the success on it is the matter of individual preparation. When once enrolled at faculty, they all have same conditions fro education: professors, lectures and libraries are available to everyone. That is one side of the coin. But, on the other side is the reality that looks different - you must pay for: route to faculty, preparations at faculty for entrance examination, taking entrance examination, index, enrolling the faculty (for all students, but prices are lower for those financed from budget), exams and verification of each semester, accommodation, food while studying; additional books or obligatory literature, since faculty's library often lacks...

If any individual has no financial conditions the solely existence of possibility for getting to college doesn't make sense. Many of quality students are not getting higher education for these reasons and from this point of view, the aim of immensely increased number of high-educated citizens is violated. Moreover, the system of scholarships in our country is pretty badly developed, and those available scholarships are too low.

When it comes to the question of financing by the state, students are saying that the main question is not if there is money or not, but it is question of financial policy. People who gained mandates by the state must justify their capability of managing public interests.

One of Croatian student's slogan was: "One world - one struggle - education is not for sale". That is exactly how the struggle looked like in 1968 which engulfed the world and the main strength were students. Their goals also were social changes, just that students were gathered in immensely number. Will today students look back in past and be persistent as those in 1968 were for the sake of their goals?


(Published: 10.05.2009.)