Police inside the Faculty of Philosophy at Novi Sad University, January 21, 2026. Photo: 021.rs

Academics in Serbia have reacted with anger after police on Wednesday night dismantled a protest blockade by students and professors at the Faculty of Philosophy at Novi Sad University, which was triggered by the dismissal of faculty professor Jelena Kleut.

After news spread of the sacking of Kleut, a supporter of the student-led anti-government protests that have gripped Serbia for over a year, students and professors blockaded the faculty in the northern city university from inside.

Dean Milivoj Alanovic called police and used a megaphone to urge the protesters to “calmly and dignifiedly leave the faculty”. But after they refused, police pushed everyone out of the building.

Smiljana Milinkov, a professor at the faculty, told BIRN that “it is unacceptable for the police to expel students and professors from a faculty in such a brutal and violent manner while they are peacefully gathered there”.

The incident was the latest flashpoint between protesters and authorities in Serbia, where protests initially sparked by the 2024 Novi Sad railway station disaster have unsettled the government.

Amid the ongoing public discontent, the authorities have repeatedly been accused of putting pressure on protest supporters who work for educational institutions and the public administration.

Kleut lost her job at the faculty because the Senate of the University did not elect her to the position of full professor.

“Jelena Kleut is not the first, and she will not be the last. Teachers and professors have been losing their jobs in primary and secondary schools in recent months as well,” said Milinkov.

“The same is happening to colleagues and professors at other faculties,” she added, citing the example of the State University in Novi Pazar, where several professors have lost their jobs recently.

“This is clearly a mechanism that has existed before and will continue – a practice of removing people who are considered politically unsuitable,” she claimed.

The Academic Plenum, a group of professors and employees at the University of Novi Sad, condemned the police response, calling it a violation of university autonomy.

“With the dismissal of Professor Jelena Kleut, and before that a large number of professors from the State University in Novi Pazar, the government has started with the expulsion of professors from their jobs, and today’s act also with the physical expulsion of both professors and students from the faculty buildings,” the Academic Plenum stated, 021 website reported.

Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic defended the police operation. He said that the police arrived at the faculty after a call from dean Alanovic, who reported that some 150 people at the faculty were disrupting its work. “The police acted in a highly professional manner and in accordance with the law,” Dacic said on Wednesday.

The police intervention at the university faculty in Novi Sad sparked protests in other Serbian cities on Wednesday evening too. People gathered in the centre of Belgrade in front of parliament, as well as in Kragujevac, Nis and Valjevo.