The Centre for Civic Education (CCE) concludes that the case of the unlawful appointment of a teaching demonstrator at the Faculty of Political Science of the University of Montenegro (FPN UCG) during the winter semester of the 2025/2026 academic year, which has been repeatedly highlighted in public by CCE, has effectively been closed through the expiry of the engagement, without any correction of the identified irregularities and without any accountability being established.
Documentation obtained by CCE through requests for free access to information confirms that the disputed decision was neither annulled, suspended, amended, nor revoked. Although CCE submitted an Initiative to Suspend the Execution of the Disputed Decision to the Dean of the Faculty of Political Science, Prof. Boris Vukićević, there are no indications that any body of the University of Montenegro or the Faculty of Political Science examined the responsibility of the members of the Commission or the Faculty’s management for conduct that CCE had previously substantiated as unlawful.
In other words, instead of an institutional response and the rectification of the identified irregularities, the chosen approach was one of silence and waiting for the contested engagement to expire on its own. A decision adopted through serious procedural violations and an incorrect application of substantive law, therefore incapable of producing legal effect, was not removed from the legal order. Instead, it was implemented in full, without any consequences for those who adopted it or enabled its execution.
CCE recalls that the selection process for the teaching demonstrator was conducted contrary to the Rector’s Decision of the University of Montenegro, which constituted the only valid legal basis for such an appointment. In doing so, the authority of that decision was undermined through the application of criteria prescribed for the selection of teaching associates rather than demonstrators, and by accepting as an eligible candidate a person who did not hold student status. As a result, the institution of the demonstrator was misused and effectively equated with that of a teaching associate, while students were denied equal access to a position that, by its very nature and purpose, is intended specifically for them.
When an institution violates its own rules and subsequently refuses to remedy the consequences of such conduct, choosing instead to wait for an unlawful appointment to expire, it sends the message that regulations can be circumvented without consequences. In this way, unlawful conduct is not sanctioned but normalised, becoming a model that future decision-makers may rely upon whenever they wish to bypass prescribed criteria. Such practices diminish the significance of existing rules, create space for arbitrary and interest-driven appointments, undermine confidence in the legality of academic procedures, and erode the principles of legal certainty, equal treatment, and accountability.
CCE calls on the Rector and the leadership of the University of Montenegro to ensure that such practices are not repeated and that future appointments of teaching demonstrators are carried out strictly in accordance with applicable regulations and prescribed criteria. At the same time, we expect the competent bodies of the University to establish responsibility for all those who enabled the disputed appointment and its implementation, in order to safeguard the legality, integrity, and credibility of Montenegro’s largest higher education institution.
Snežana Kaluđerović, Senior Legal Advisor