Centre for Civic Education (CCE) believes that the time has come for the Rector to take a clear and direct position regarding the case of the illegal employment of Ivan Jeknić as a student demonstrator at the Faculty of Political Science of the University of Montenegro, a matter that has also been reported by the media.
The CCE’s legal analysis unequivocally indicates that this is an unlawful procedure. We recall that the selection committee, composed of Prof. Dr Milan Marković (recently also elected as a member of the Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts), Prof. Dr Nataša Ružić, and Assist. Prof. Dr Ena Grbović, violated the applicable regulations by appointing Ivan Jeknić, the son of their colleague, to the position of student demonstrator, despite the fact that he did not meet the prescribed eligibility criteria. The committee’s arbitrary interpretation of the published criteria from the Internal Call, as well as subsequent unlawful “clarifications” of that call, demonstrate a misapplication of substantive law. In this manner, the position of demonstrator was misused and effectively equated with that of a teaching associate, which is not permitted under the applicable regulations. Consequently, the report of the Committee for the Evaluation of Applications was based on criteria that were neither stipulated in the Internal Call nor in the Rector’s Decision, meaning that the Committee acted outside the scope of its authority.
Although the Internal Call referred to the engagement of demonstrators without establishing an employment relationship, and explicitly required that a demonstrator be a student, the Committee applied criteria characteristic of procedures for the appointment of teaching associates. This directly violated the explicit prohibition on the analogous application of such criteria, as prescribed by the Rector’s Decision. The Committee could not have been unaware of this prohibition, given that both the Internal Call and the Rector’s Decision, as its legal basis, were integral parts of the case file available to it.
Such practice is not permitted under the Law on Higher Education, the Statute of the University of Montenegro, nor the internal regulations of the University of Montenegro, all of which clearly stipulate that a teaching associate cannot be engaged as a demonstrator. This was also confirmed by the Dean of the Faculty of Political Science, Boris Vukićević, in his response to the CCE, stating that “the position of demonstrator is not specifically regulated by either the old or the new Law on Higher Education, nor by other legal provisions, and that the engagement of such persons is established for the purposes of the teaching process for a specific period, in accordance with the Labour Law, the Law on Obligations, and the internal acts of the University of Montenegro.”
As a result, the appointment of the specific individual as a demonstrator cannot produce any legal effect. Any participation of this person in teaching activities or in the assessment of students constitutes legally unfounded conduct, for which responsibility lies with the bodies that enabled such an appointment and practice. This is a matter that necessarily requires the involvement of the Education inspectorate, as well as the Rector of the University of Montenegro, Vladimir Božović.
The key issue, therefore, is not the alleged conduct of the demonstrator, but rather his unlawful appointment. A person who could not have been lawfully appointed cannot lawfully perform any duties within the teaching process.
Given the violations of substantive law and the serious procedural breaches, the Decision of the Faculty of Political Science of the University of Montenegro No. 01-1575/4 of 31 October 2025 cannot produce legal effect. Its continued implementation would lead to further violations of the principles of legality, legal certainty, and equal treatment of candidates.
For all the above reasons, the CCE considers that the Rector is obliged to suspend the execution of this decision, annul the procedure conducted under the Internal Call of the Faculty of Political Science No. 01-1575/1 of 22 October 2025, and initiate a new procedure in accordance with his decision and the applicable internal acts, with strict adherence to the principles of legality and equal treatment of all candidates.
Snežana Kaluđerović, Senior Legal Advisor