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Belgrade University drops in Shanghai ranking amid political dispute
🇷🇸 Serbia /Culture & Society

Belgrade University drops in Shanghai ranking amid political dispute

From N1 Serbia · () Serbian

Summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Named sources Context piece
  • The University of Belgrade has dropped to the 501–600 bracket in the Shanghai Ranking, sparking a political dispute.
  • Government officials blame student blockades, but academics argue chronic underinvestment and policy changes hindering research are the true causes.
  • The ranking dispute highlights broader structural problems in Serbia's research system, with academics pointing to low GDP spending on science and funding delays.

The University of Belgrade's fall into the 501–600 bracket of the latest Shanghai Ranking has ignited a political firestorm in Serbia. Government officials, including those who dismissed key figures from the Institute of Architecture and Urban Planning, attribute the decline to last year's student blockades and university leadership.

The blockades could not have affected this year’s result because research takes years to produce measurable results. Any impact, she said, would only become visible around 2028.

— Ivanka PopovićFormer Belgrade University rector commenting on the impact of student blockades on the Shanghai Ranking.

However, academics interviewed by N1 strongly reject this explanation. They emphasize that the Shanghai Ranking assesses research performance, not teaching or protests, and that research impact takes years to materialize. Former rector Ivanka Popović stated that any effect from the blockades would not be visible until around 2028.

Instead, researchers point to chronic underinvestment in Serbian science as the primary culprit. Serbia allocates approximately 0.4% of its GDP to research, significantly less than Croatia (0.7%) and Slovenia (0.92%). They also cite delays in state-funded projects and insufficient support for international scientific collaboration.

These funds do not exist.

— Vladimir ObradovićProfessor at Harvard, commenting on the lack of funding for researchers in Serbia to publish in SSCI-indexed journals.

Academics further highlight specific policy changes that have hampered research. Professor Vladimir Obradović noted the prohibitive cost of publishing in SSCI-indexed journals, a cost often beyond researchers' reach in Serbia. Chemistry professor Dušan Veljković pointed to a regulation introduced during the protests that slashed professors' research time from 20 hours a week to just five, effectively hindering their work. Physics professor Zoran Nikolić added that the university's output has stagnated while global research grows, and the loss of a highly cited researcher significantly impacted its ranking. He also noted the university fell below the top 500 in 2021, a year without blockades, suggesting deeper systemic issues.

They prohibited us from working.

— Dušan VeljkovićChemistry professor commenting on a regulation that reduced professors' research time.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by N1 Serbia. Summarized and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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