The Minister of Education, Dejan Vuk Stanković, announced last week amendments to – or rather the adoption of – a new Law on Higher Education, the key novelty of which would be opening up space for the arrival of “renowned foreign universities into the higher education market in Serbia”.
The academic community was alarmed, claiming that this move creates an “atmosphere of political confrontation” with state faculties, aiming to disparage their globally recognised reputation by creating unfair competition.
A similar assessment is being made regarding the idea of founding the Saint Sava Serbian Orthodox University, which was disclosed on 8th May through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of Serbia and the Serbian Orthodox Church. Although we know that this future institution will “inherit love for the homeland as one of its highest values”, according to the observation of President Aleksandar Vučić, far more important details still remain unknown.
Many unknowns
Consequently, interested parties are wondering – which higher education institutions would make up this “patriotic” university, who would teach there, who would attend it, how would it be accredited and funded, and, perhaps most importantly – whether the principles of academic autonomy, which other universities (allegedly) possess, would apply to it.
The only thing the public has to go on right now is the assumption that the anchor of this institution would be the Orthodox Theological Faculty (PBF), currently a member of the University of Belgrade. However, current reality refutes this. Last week, the entrance exam for enrollment at the PBF was held, which shows an absence of intention by the administration to change anything over the next five years, during which the scientific research work programmes, adopted about a month ago, remain valid, as reasoned by theologian Blagoje Pantelić.
“Nevertheless, it could easily happen that PBF freshmen change universities overnight, judging by the address of Metropolitan Irinej Bulović, who explicitly stated at the May Assembly that the Saint Sava University would begin operating in September. Patriarch Porfirije did not deny his claims, according to my knowledge,” Pantelić notes.
Stating further that the Memorandum does not bind anyone, His Holiness then hinted at some of the possible ways to finance this university – through donations from “wealthy Serbs”, as well as by “purchasing private faculties that operate at a profit”. The President of the State, Aleksandar Vučić, who was present at the signing of the document, was somewhat “more precise”, revealing that the “theological education of future priests would take place side by side with studies in medicine, law, natural and technical sciences, and the arts”. Who these “wealthy Serbs” willing to invest in this controversial project are, and which faculties are open to being sold, we still do not know.
“The announcement of purchasing ‘profitable private faculties’ is not proof of a serious educational ambition by the outgoing secular government. On the contrary, this announcement reveals that it is an unseemly combination of irresponsible educational policy and commercial interest. Therefore, it will not solve any real problem in Serbian higher education; it will only deepen them. Instead of autonomy, it offers control; instead of knowledge, dogma; instead of quality, loyalty; and instead of the public good, another mechanism for individuals to enrich themselves at the expense of citizens and the state,” says Aleksandar Baucal, a full professor at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade and one of the leading domestic experts on educational policies and the quality of higher education.
“This would not be the Saint Sava University, but the University of Holy Self-Interest,” this expert observes.
Making a mockery of higher education
Conversely, if the government truly cared about educational reform, it would first consider the number of students in Serbia, demographic trends, and the vulnerability of certain universities (such as the State University of Novi Pazar and the University of Pristina, with its “temporary” seat in Kosovska Mitrovica, which are being deliberately obstructed or cut adrift). It would also analyse where certain staff, research infrastructure, and quality study programmes are lacking, Baucal emphasises.
Instead, we will get a “party-motivated revenge against the academic community”, coupled with non-transparent ways of implementing this church-state project. “Although the current Law on Higher Education does not forbid co-ownership of educational institutions, the state has not entered into such partnerships until now,” explains Ivanka Popović, professor emeritus at the Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy in Belgrade and former rector of Belgrade University. But there is a first time for everything, as the local saying goes, in the name of whose good the transformation of higher education is being carried out, to the point of making a mockery of it.
In this game with the destinies of young people, it is entirely possible and legally feasible for the PBF to withdraw from the University of Belgrade in order to become the flagship of the Saint Sava institution. However, due to the specific role of this faculty, i.e., its never-severed link with the Serbian Orthodox Church, “the only sensible organisational form is for the PBF to be declared a higher education institution of national importance, whose work would be defined by special regulations,” the former rector believes.
Thus, we would get a special law in the higher education system as well, and that with the (false) blessing of Saint Sava, “the first lawmaker, writer, teacher, and the first significant diplomat”, as the president described the founder of the autocephalous Serbian Orthodox Church. “Saint Sava would probably turn in his grave if a party university, devoid of autonomy, a critical spirit, and the readiness to say ‘no’ to politicians when they work against citizens and society, were to bear his name,” Baucal says decisively.
For now, besides the PBF, the Serbian Orthodox Church High School for Arts and Conservation is also mentioned in the division of roles, which was renamed a few weeks ago as the Despot Stefan Lazarević Faculty through an affiliation with the private Singidunum University. It is understood that the students of this arts faculty would comply, even if forced, with the ancient canons of fresco and icon painting, but what would be taught at the future medical, natural, and technical science faculties, which the Memorandum (tacitly) envisions, according to the president’s interpretation?
“Even more problematic would be the studies of law, history, or theology, given that we live in a country where a professor of constitutional law and the president of the Constitutional Court (Vladan Petrov), in full consciousness and conscience, declares that the problem here is that the judiciary has broken free from the control of the executive branch,” says Vukašin Milićević, a theologian and former assistant professor at the PBF. What, then, is the attempt to remove Darwin’s theory from the curriculum, an initiative launched by “patriots” in the 2000s?
In the absence of information about the upcoming project, we can only make jokes at the expense of the future university’s co-founders. Perhaps one of the necessary study programmes could be dedicated to the technology of wine production, considering the fondness for this drink that seems to be shared by certain church and state officials. Following this logic, one could also count on donations from the only truly well-off believers.
Out of the citizens’ pockets
Let us return to a more serious tone, more suited to the topic of forming a private (church) university that will be funded, at least in part, from the budget. For how else are we to understand the president’s offer that the Saint Sava University will receive “every kind of support and assistance from the state, primarily for the benefit of our people and generations to come”? This would mean that the schooling of Orthodox theologians and other “patriotic” personnel is paid for by all citizens of Serbia, regardless of their religious beliefs.
Rushing into “reforms” like a bull in a china shop, the current secular government has not even executed its previously devised project, so the study programme of the Faculty of Serbian Studies at the University of Niš is still not accredited. Surrounded by various pressures, the academic community is clutching at a straw – the slowness of the administration. This factor will also help it delay the opening of the Saint Sava university, because the Memorandum is merely a framework for future deals, “to the detriment of critical thinking as a key component of a free society”, in Milićević’s opinion.
The status of a private, or even a church university, is not inherently controversial to him, given that “there are many positive examples showing it is possible to combine the founder’s interests with the guaranteed freedom of scientific work and research, examples of which are Leuven in Belgium or Notre Dame in America”. In contrast, this Saint Sava University of ours would be based on an “assault on freedom in every imaginable form”, which would be jointly implemented by “corrupt regimes in both state and church”, from Milićević’s viewpoint.
This bond was formalised back in 2021, when the institute of the blessing was introduced into the Law on Higher Education, valid only in the case of the PBF. “Instead of discussing this openly within the academic community and reaching a solution that would reconcile the needs of that faculty whilst also preserving the autonomy of the University, the Serbian Orthodox Church extracted a bureaucratic solution from the Government in line with its own interests,” notes the former rector, during whose mandate this non-academic principle was adopted. This happened despite the loud dissatisfaction of Serbia’s intellectual elite, which must be crushed by any means necessary.
Church-State marketing
Part of the same goal is Minister Stanković’s announcement that the doors will be opened wide to foreign universities through amendments to the relevant law. “The academic community is not against healthy competition, but it is necessary for all universities, regardless of their founder, to meet the same conditions for accreditation and a working licence, rather than foreign institutions being privileged through the recognition of the accreditations of their home countries, without any domestic verification,” Popović points out.
“This could only serve those who would bring those universities in, and by no means the Republic of Serbia, which as the founder of all state universities is called upon to strengthen them, not tear them down,” the former rector is explicit.
The Saint Sava University, however, is a different kettle of fish, because it can be founded in accordance with existing regulations. It is there that one should look for the path towards the total clericalisation of Serbia, and its transformation into a religious state outside of all scientific currents.
And what would happen to the PBF if it became entirely church-owned, given that it currently dismisses teachers on the whim of the church leadership – which lacks jurisdiction in this matter – whilst deploying all sorts of blessings? It would be similar, Milićević believes, except that teachers “would no longer blush at the sessions of university councils, unsuccessfully concealing the truth about everything happening at that faculty”. His colleague Pantelić views the problem differently, claiming that for those who actually call the shots, “not even the sky would be the limit”.
Fortunately, one fact indicates that not everyone has fallen for the church-state marketing – during this year’s enrollment across all available study programmes, it turned out that interest in state faculties is growing, according to the observation of Professor Baucal.
(Radar, 07.07.2026)
https://radar.nova.rs/drustvo/uticaj-najavljenog-univerziteta-sveti-sava/