Centre for Civic Education (CCE) analysed publicly available information on the educational backgrounds of the mayors of all 25 local self-government units in Montenegro – 23 municipalities, the Capital City of Podgorica and the Old Royal Capital of Cetinje – based on information published on official municipal websites and other publicly available sources. The analysis shows that while most mayors hold higher education degrees, the transparency of their biographies remains inconsistent, and in some cases even basic information about their education is unavailable to the public.
As in its previous analysis of the educational profiles of Government members and MPs, CCE underlines that higher education is not a legal requirement for serving as a mayor. However, citizens have the right to complete, accurate and verifiable information about the qualifications of those entrusted with managing local communities and public resources.
Most Mayors Hold Higher Education Degrees
Out of the 25 mayors, 20 have completed higher education, including undergraduate, specialist or master’s studies. Two mayors have completed post-secondary vocational education, which does not constitute university-level education, while two have only completed secondary education. For the Mayor of Rožaje, Rahman Husović, no publicly available information on his educational background could be found.
In terms of fields of study, law and economics are the most common disciplines, accounting for almost half of all mayors. Other represented fields include technical sciences, natural sciences, medicine and the social sciences and humanities, such as electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, geodesy, biotechnology, medicine, political science, philosophy and foreign languages.
Eight mayors (32%) have completed postgraduate studies, including specialist, master’s or doctoral programmes, among them one holder of a PhD in electrical engineering and one doctoral candidate in economics.
At the same time, 10 mayors (40%) obtained their degrees, either fully or partially, from higher education institutions outside Montenegro, most commonly in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also in Kosovo, Croatia and the United States.
Educational Information Is Not Equally Accessible Across Municipalities
The analysis also found that four municipalities do not publish information about the educational background of their mayors on their official websites. These are Mojkovac, Petnjica and Plužine, while for the Mayor of Rožaje no information could be found in any publicly available source. In the case of Plav, the information is not available on the municipality’s official website but only on a separate website dedicated to the mayor.
CCE believes that publishing complete biographies, including information on formal education, should represent the minimum standard of transparency for every local self-government unit.
Verification of Diplomas Should Cover All Local Government Employees
These findings build on CCE’s earlier initiative addressed to all mayors, calling on them, in accordance with Article 72 of the Law on Local Self-Government, to initiate a systematic review of the personnel files of all employees in local government bodies and public enterprises in order to verify the authenticity of the educational qualifications on which their employment was based.
CCE also recalled that the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation established an Intersectoral Working Group for the verification of educational credentials as early as May 2024, while the Government Commission is already examining thousands of suspicious diplomas nationwide. CCE therefore proposed that municipalities establish cooperation with the Ministry to verify diplomas, create dedicated commissions or working groups to review personnel records, and regularly inform the public about the results of these checks.
CCE further believes that the results of these procedures should be consolidated into a publicly accessible register of verified educational qualifications, accompanied by the obligation to initiate appropriate legal proceedings wherever irregularities or unlawful practices are identified.
The issue is not the level of formal education held by mayors, but whether the public can verify the qualifications they present.
CCE assesses that the lack of systematic verification of educational credentials may have multiple adverse consequences, ranging from undermining the quality of public administration and equal employment opportunities to weakening public trust and the integrity of local institutions.
Therefore, CCE calls on all local self-government units to publish complete and up-to-date biographies of their mayors, including information on their education, and to carry out a systematic verification of the educational credentials of all employees, in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation, while regularly informing the public about the outcomes of these verification procedures.
Trust in local self-government begins with transparency. If citizens cannot verify even the most basic information about the qualifications of those governing their municipalities, it is difficult to expect full confidence in the institutions they represent.
Snežana Kaluđerović, Senior Legal Adviser