Students rally in Novi Pazar against university crackdown amid nationwide protests

Thousands of students and activists from across Serbia converged on the southwestern town of Novi Pazar on Sunday, in a powerful demonstration against what they call government-orchestrated pressure on state universities.

The protest, the first of its scale in this majority Bosniak Muslim community, highlighted escalating tensions at the State University of Novi Pazar (DUNP), where administrators have revoked student statuses and dismissed lecturers in apparent retaliation for participation in anti-corruption rallies.

This event is part of a broader movement ignited by the tragic collapse of a railway station concrete canopy in Novi Sad last year, which claimed 16 lives and exposed deep-seated issues of negligence and political interference.

The Novi Sad disaster on 1 November 2024, when a renovated canopy crumbled, killing passers-by and injuring dozens, sparked Serbia’s largest student-led protest wave in decades. What began as demands for accountability has evolved into a nationwide challenge against President Aleksandar Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), accused of fostering corruption, nepotism, and stifling dissent.

Students from Novi Pazar gained national fame for their gruelling multi-day march to join anniversary commemorations in Novi Sad, symbolizing unity across ethnic and regional divides. However, upon returning, many faced repercussions: around 200 students lost their regular status due to protest-related absences, and some 30 professors were fired, protesters claim.

“I came here to express support to Novi Pazar students,” said Momcilo Zelenbaba, who traveled 190 kilometers from Jagodina. “I came because 200 students lost their status and 30 professors lost their jobs.”

The rally drew several thousand participants, who waved flags from various towns and universities, observed a moment of silence for the railway victims, and chanted their signature slogan, “Pump up!”

Demands centered on the resignation of the university’s managing board and the election of a new rector to restore autonomy. “We are here today to send a message to Serbia that we fight for an interim management and the survival of our university,” declared Dzenana Ahmetovic, a protester. “This concerns all of us, not only Novi Pazar.”

Speeches from academics amplified the rally’s message of resilience and reform. Miloš Pavlović, a professor from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, praised the Novi Pazar students as emblems of unity, courage, tolerance, and understanding.

“It’s no wonder that the students of the State University in Novi Pazar have become a symbol of unity, courage, tolerance, and understanding, because they come from a city that knows what it means to live together,” he said.

Pavlović emphasized how they rebuilt trust eroded over decades: “This is not a student movement; this is a mature social act, a response to attempts to suppress education, weaken universities, replace knowledge with fear. The state’s desire to shut down a university is not just an administrative and technical act. It’s an indicator of the path someone wants to lead us on. But that’s not a path; it’s a dead end.”

Predrag Cvetičanin, from the Faculty of Arts in Niš, highlighted the emotional impact of the Novi Pazar students’ actions in dismantling “walls of mistrust and hatred built for years by radicals, disguised radicals, and their collaborators.”

He decried nepotism at DUNP, noting, “I’ve been working at the university for over 30 years, I’ve seen all sorts of things, nepotism is no stranger to me at the faculty, but for a father to leave a state university as an inheritance to his children—that I haven’t seen yet. For the state to pay pensioners from across the country to receive salaries as full professors alongside their pensions—that I haven’t seen yet.”

Cvetičanin urged local Novi Pazar representatives to engage in the university’s future and predicted a resounding victory for a unified student list in upcoming elections, signalling an inevitable defeat for the ruling SNS.

Marina Petrović Jilih, from the Philological-Artistic Faculty in Kragujevac, warned that the “collapse of universities in Serbia is getting its heavy stamp in Novi Pazar.” She called for defending core protest values: “We need to show them that with these young people, we will protect and preserve the most important achievements of the student protests – justice for all, equality, unity, solidarity, and harmony. Regardless of all our differences.”

Former DUNP professor Senad Ganić described Novi Pazar as “one of the brightest spots in Serbia’s democratic struggle,” ignited amid administrative darkness. “That light was lit at DUNP in the midst of the darkness brought by those who lead it. The light was lit by students and their free professors and carried across Serbia. They carried the voice of the oppression happening in one small, divided, and paralyzed community,” he said.

Ganić stressed that destroying DUNP would initiate the broader dismantling of higher education nationwide.

Student Enes Džogović recounted unprecedented violations: “For the first time at this higher education institution, the administration called students terrorists and foreign mercenaries, invaded the university and expelled students, and for the first time violated its autonomy.” He accused attempts to divide them via nationalist propaganda, met with messages of love. “We are still here and we continue to fight. We’re going to the end. We care more about saving it than they do about destroying it. I think it’s clear to them that we won’t give up and that we’ll fight to preserve the university.” Džogović announced plans to meet the new rector, Tanja Soldatović, with future steps hinging on that dialogue.

Novi Pazar, Serbia’s youngest demographic hub with 60% of its population under 30, has maintained peaceful relations with Orthodox Serb neighbors since Yugoslavia’s dissolution over three decades ago. Despite its ethnic distinctiveness, the protest underscored cross-community solidarity. The movement, blending students, academics, and opposition figures, continues to pressure Vucic’s administration over media restrictions, poor services, and corruption – allegations the president denies.

Caption: Protesters attend a demonstration organized by university students in front of the State University of Novi Pazar (DUNP) building in Novi Pazar, Serbia, 21 December 2025. EPA/DJORDJE SAVIC