Violence against women and teaching at higher education institutions in Serbia
Authors: Nikolic-Ristanovic Vesna 
Published: January 2020

The paper has two aims. It aims to present first steps in introducing the
topic of violence against women in higher education institutions in Serbia
as well as to present results of exploratory research about the current
situation regarding the place that violence against women as a topic has in
teaching at the selected higher education institutions in Serbia. In the
first part of the paper, the first time inclusion of this topic in one
criminology textbook and the syllabi at the Law Faculty (University of Nis)
in 1998, and later (2004) at the Faculty for special education and
rehabilitation - FASPER (University of Belgrade) is described. The
importance of the cooperation of the author of this paper and professor
Slobodanka Konstantinovic Vilic, persons and circumstances that were
beneficial for their ideas to be realized, as well as further development of
teaching about violence against women at these faculties is emphasized. In
the second part of the paper current state of teaching about violence
against women at the Law Faculty (University of Nis) and FASPER is examined
within a larger context of the situation at similar faculties in Serbia. The
analysis is focused on the visibility of the violence against women topic in
the syllabi of the faculties of three state universities: University of
Belgrade, University of Nis and University of Novi Sad. Apart from the Nis
Law Faculty and FASPER, the analysis included the law faculties of the
University of Belgrade and University of Novi Sad, as well as Special
education and rehabilitation studies at the Faculty of Medicine in Novi Sad.
The analysis is based on the data contained in the syllabi (undergraduate,
master and doctoral level) that were available online on the internet sites
of the given faculties in October 2018. Qualitative analysis of the syllabi
was performed. It included the following data: course title, goals,
outcomes, content and reading materials. The results suggest that violence
against women topic is included in teaching at the majority of the faculties
encompassed by the study, while at the same time there is inconsistency in
dealing with different forms of violence. The topic of domestic violence is
the most common, while sexual violence and trafficking in people (women) are
less present. Some faculties have courses specifically dealing with either
domestic violence or trafficking in people. Other forms of violence against
women, such as stalking, work-related abuse and violence against women in
general, are rarely present in syllabi, i.e. only at certain faculties. We
can assume that these topics are only sporadically taught, or are not taught
at all. The topic of violence against women is most prominent in
undergraduate level syllabi, while it is somewhat less represented on the
master level and in doctoral studies. However, on the other side, some
master courses are completely or largely devoted to topics related to
violence against women (e.g. courses called Domestic violence and
Trafficking in people). The main weakness is the fact that most of the
courses that have violence against women as a part of their syllabi are
optional courses, which means that all students are not educated for
adequate dealing with violence against women in their future practical work.
Based on the study results, the author concludes that the current situation
regarding the inclusion of the violence against women topic is better than
twenty years ago. However, it is necessary to conduct larger and more
detailed study in order to give reliable estimation of whether education
that future professionals obtain at faculties in Serbia is appropriate to
assure adequate social response to violence against women in terms of its
suppression, prevention and victims support.