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Although a considerable amount of research was conducted on the topic of the 1990s Yugoslav wars, the affect the war had on Vojvodinian minorities (in this case the Hungarian ethnic minority) received scant attention in the wider academic community. Millennials, born in the 1980s might be the group most adversely affected by the Yugoslav wars. They did not experience anything from the ?old Yugoslavia? which was idolized by many, and which did serve as a welfare state for the generations who were born in the middle of the century. Millennials had to face the diminishment of the big country on the micro level, i.e. in their families as their fathers were receiving military conscription and anxiety was brought in and on the macro level, i.e. in the society being faced with open nationalism, alienation, and the prospect of being side-lined. The goal of this paper is to investigate the effect of the Yugoslav wars on the ethnic minority millennials childhood and adult life through their narratives about the traumatic experiences caused by the war. The analysis is based on semi-structured interviews conducted with millennials born in homogenous Hungarian marriage or in a Serbian-Hungarian intermarriage of their parents. The findings show that all the respondents, on a micro level, endured fear and anxiety because of their fathers either went to war or went to live abroad, leaving their family for many years to avoid military conscription. On a macro level, the respondents encountered nationalism-fueled incidents during their schooling or in the street that inevitably became embedded into their identities.

As borders and political systems change, members of some nations become minorities, resulting in multifaceted changes to those communities. This paper draws on Otherness and intersectionality in pr...

The aim of the paper is to present and explain the difficulties of students and teaching staff with Serbian, the majority language in the higher education system of Serbia, through the concept of Otherness, known from postcolonial theories. The paper is based on thirty-one semi-structured interviews conducted with Hungarian female and male teaching staff and students, who studied or worked at the University of Novi Sad or the University of Belgrade. In their narratives, ethnic minority women and men portray, explain, hide, or even emphasize their Otherness connected to language. The paper sheds light on the way in which language skill (majority or minority) is transformative; initially it is a disadvantage, but later it becomes an advantage during studies and also, in building university careers. The paper reveals through the concept of Otherness how students and university staff members of Hungarian ethnicity reflect on their experience with language difficulty, or how they have created an advantage thanks to their Otherness, or view their disadvantage through the prism of fate they cannot change.

PurposeThe aim of this article is to explore the perceptions of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields in two ethnic groups (majority Serb and minority Hungarian) in a multiethnic region – Vojvodina, in Serbia – from an intersectional perspective.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative study was implemented, capitalizing on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with university faculty members from two ethnic groups working in a multiethnic region of Serbia (Vojvodina) in the STEM field of studies. Intersectionality as a theoretical approach was applied to reveal the interconnectedness between gender, ethnicity and field of studies.FindingsThe intersectional analysis indicates that minority Hungarian women are more conservative and less inclusive toward other women in STEM, thus they continue to build and enforce gender-based stereotypes. Their lack of inclusiveness is due to having had to overcome a situation of “double jeopardy” (Almquist, 1975) when building a career in STEM, being both members of an ethnic minority and women in STEM. Majority Serb women have adopted masculine patterns of behavior, try to blend in, and become “one of the boys” (Powell and Sang, 2015) in order to diminish the gender penalty and be seen as equal to men. Both minority and majority women agreed that deeply rooted gender stereotypes prevent women from choosing a career in STEM and identified the need for more inclusive education programs at all levels and for more female role models in STEM.Originality/valueThe study contributes by increasing understanding of ethnic minority and majority women's issues in STEM studies in Serbia from an intersectional perspective. It may be relevant to policy makers and contribute to the development of policy recommendations that steer more women in general and ethnic minority women specifically toward STEM, with the ultimate goal of enabling Serbia to develop not only socially but also economically. The paper contributes to the limited research on the STEM-related career experiences of ethnic minority Hungarian women and majority Serb women in Serbia and in the Western Balkans in general.

The paper aims to fill the gap in the scholarly literature regarding the way in which the intersection of ethnicity, gender and scientific fields shapes women?s narratives about science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields in a multiethnic environment in Serbia. A qualitative study was conducted, capitalizing on in-depth, semi-structured of twenty semi-structured interviews conducted with university professors from ethnic minority and majority comminties, working in STEM and social sciences and humanities (SSH) field of studies in two state universiteis in Serbia. The findings indicate that ethnic minority female professors from STEM are less open to female students and colleagues in their domains and do not see the need for more women in STEM. This attitude can be traced back to these women having to overcome a ?double jeopardy? and ?symbolic violence? in a very male-dominated field, as they belong to ethnic minority and hat to deal with the lack of or with the denial of recources within institutions. Equal abilities of men and women in STEM was a topic occurring mostly in the narratives of the majority women who mostly adopted a masculine patterns of behavior and tried to become ?one of the boys?. Both minority and majority women agreed that deeply rooted gender stereotypes prevent women from choosing a career in STEM. The research identified the need for more inclusive education programs on all levels and for female role models to steer more women towards STEM.

The aim of this article is to discuss the position of ethnic minority women (Hungarian, Slovak, and Romanian) in relation to their career-building in the Serbian higher education system and reaching decision-making positions (such as rector, vice-rector, dean, head of department, etc.). The author defines two hypotheses: (1) that there are invisible biases (gender-based, ethnicity-based, and segregation-related) in the sciences that put ethnic minority women in a challenging position when attempting to build a career in academia, and (2) that these women encounter a glass ceiling when trying to reach more senior positions. The analysis is based on 16 semi-structured interviews conducted with Hungarian, Slovak, and Romanian female teaching staff employed at two Serbian universities. Intersectionality as a theoretical framework and method was used in the analysis of interviews, along with narrative analysis. Analysis of the interviews showed that ethnic minority women adopt specific strategies when discussing and explaining their difficulties and opportunities in the higher education system of Serbia. The intersectional analysis indicates that ethnic minority women struggle with invisible biases at the individual level, and, due to the horizontal segregation in sciences, have to overcome a situation of double jeopardy in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) studies. The findings suggest that women from ethnic minorities face a glass ceiling in relation to obtaining decision-making positions. Namely, such positions are usually only guaranteed to them within their own ethnic enclaves at departments with majority female staff. However, positions higher than these are rarely attainable.

Although work–life balance in academia is a widely represented topic in the academic discourse, there is still no structural solution to this phenomenon. The main aim of this article is to analyse ...

Even though the confrontation of women with the necessity to seek a balance between career and family in academia has become a subject of various research studies, a structural solution for this phenomenon still does not exist. The goal of this paper is to compare the narratives of Hungarian ethnic minority and Serbian majority female university staff members working at the Universities of Novi Sad and Belgrade, with respect to the difficulties they face when balancing family life and academic career. The qualitative research was based on twenty semi-structured interviews, conducted in 2014 and 2015. The findings show that women when balancing between their careers and families used certain strategies to explain their views and decisions. The challenge of finding work-life balance is great for women, who decide to deal with it on a micro level, in their own family and in their own way, to keep up with their commitments. Although these are women with the same socio-economic status, the intersectional analysis showed that there is a difference between the strategies used by respondents of different nationalities when balancing their career and family, and that their different social origin, family and life circumstances lead to establishing differences between these professional categories of women. The abovementioned differences lead to new inequalities between women in academia.Key words: women, ethnicity, social origin, career and family, academic community in Serbia

The system of financial management and control implies a set of controls, which do not only refer to the area of funding, but also to all operational and strategic units, aimed at achieving the defined goals of public sector entities. Successful implementation of the system of financial management and control will enable the compliance of operations of the public funds beneficiaries with positive legal regulations. For the purpose of effective and efficient achievement of objectives of work and activities, the paper analyses the application and development of the system of financial management and control in the Provincial Secretariat for Higher Education and Scientific Research. The purpose of this study is to consider the efficiency and effectiveness of the established system of financial management and control, indicating the possibility for improvement of the said system. The study results show that efficient and relevant application of financial management and control is needed in this Provincial administration authority, for the purpose of improving the achievement of objectives of its work and activities, as well as control of legal and specific purpose expenditure of public funds, intended for higher education and scientific research in AP Vojvodina.

The goal of this paper is to present an analysis of the status and career choices of Hungarian, Slovak, and Romanian ethnic minority high school graduates in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, the northern province of Serbia. We implemented a purpose-built, paper-based-questionnaire process of data collection that involved 2,192 ethnic minority high school students who were finishing high school in their mother tongues in 16 municipalities in Vojvodina. The results of the analysis showed that almost 40 per cent of the sample of ethnic minority high school graduates planned to leave Serbia to study in their mother tongues in nearby European Union (EU) countries. While this brain drain is not a new trend, our research shows that there are new and different reasons for it and it was caused by the insufficiency of Serbian language skills of the ethnic minority studnets. The results of the research show that the main reason for this educational migration is thus the aspiration to obtain a diploma from an EU-based institution, which (1) grants immediate access to the EU’s integrated labor market, and (2) is perceived to improve social status compared to that of remaining in Serbia after graduating. Despite this new motive for educational migration, language barriers are still relevant determinants of the latter. A gender-sensitive analysis of the responses was undertaken that showed that there are gender-based differences in terms of which students continue their studies after high school, and in the reasons for staying in Serbia.

The subject of this research were the gender differences in the choice of studies of Hungarian, Slovak and Romanian ethnic minority members in the AP of Vojvodina. The aim of the paper is to analyze the status and career choices of ethnic minority students, who finish their secondary school in AP Vojvodina in their mother tongue. In order to achieve the aforementioned goal, 2192 students, both male and female, were asked to fill in a formal questionnaire in 16 municipalities in Vojvodina in 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 school years. The results show that around one third of the secondary school students migrates and studies in the nearby EU countries. The research has also shown that gender stereotypes significantly influence the career choices of female students, who usually opt for social sciences, although technical sciences would provide them with a wider range of opportunities in career development.

The primary goal of this paper is to analyse the opinions of male and female professors about reaching decision-making positions (dean, departmental head, etc.) within the Serbian academia. The secondary goal of the paper is to analyse the opinions of ethnic minority women about reaching decision-making positions. The analysis is based on twenty-eight semi-structured interviews, recorded with male and female professors of the University of Novi Sad and Belgrade, who belong to Hungarian, Slovak and Romanian minority groups, as well as with the professors from the majority group. The analysis indicates that the majority of the respondents are not motivated to reach the power positions within the university. They explain their lack of motivation by using various ?strategies?. The ?strategies? differ between men and women: women distance themselves from politics and see themselves as educators, whereas men are not ready to get involved in the politics of the academia at the moment, but do not exclude that possibility in the future. Female members of ethnic groups see their nationality as a primary obstacle on their way towards reaching decision-making positions, while their gender serves as a secondary source of discrimination, whereas ethnic majority women, in their narratives, accentuate gender as the only obstacle they have. Men more often mention gender and ethnicity as obstacles for women from ethnic groups when reaching decision-making positions.

The analysis of the ways early career investigators from 32 countries frame the notion of ‘research impact’ in the Social Sciences and the Humanities (SSH) reveal some obvious commonalities. There is a convergent tendency to describe impact as an object of great concern that operates mostly through communication, while avoiding any absolute definition of the notion. Respondents associate impact to the concept of accountability and share the perception that impact does not currently belong to the dominant academic culture. Differentiations and even divergences in framing appear though in regard to the cognitive or social nature of impact as well as in the extent to which respondents associate the processes of conducting scientific research with or dissociate them from the creation of social impact. As such, five common argumentative frames of impact and six differentiated or divergent ones are brought to light. While commonalities can be related to shared socio-professional circumstances, the observed differentiations and divergences in framing are linked to the diversity of disciplinary, national and institutional contexts within which scholars are trained and conduct their research. Because of the coexistence of commonalities, differentiations, and divergences in early career investigators’ framing of impact, it is argued that research impact in the SSH is best conceptualized as a ‘boundary object’ (Star and Griesemer, 1989). We conclude that attempts to frame impact within a narrower perspective – whether in scholarly discourse or policy making – would finally reduce the diversity of contextualized opportunities for SSH scholars to engage in any valuable creation of impact., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

The subject of the paper is to analyze the impact of the language barrier faced by Hungarian minority female professors and students in the higher education sys?tem of Serbia. The aim of this paper is to propose measures which might allow Hungarian minority students to overcome the language barrier more easily and to raise awareness for the need of more Hungarian women in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The analysis is based on twenty four semi-structured interviews conducted with minority Hungarian female professors and students, who are working or studying at the University of Novi Sad, Serbia. Interviews were conducted with a pre-composed questionnaire between the end of 2014 and the beginning of 2015. Interviewees were chosen with a snowball sampling method. Results of analysis show that the majority of Hungarian women face a language barrier at the start of their studies, mostly because of their limited knowledge of the majority?s language. These barriers were more pronounced in Hungarian female students than with professor. This phenomenon can be attributed to the time in which they grew up, or to a different social environment of the twentieth century, when bilingualism was completely natural, from which, less segregation of the nations resulted and a better knowledge of the Serbian language. The professors particularly point out that being bilingual is a great advantage and that their knowledge of several languages was a key advantage in their academic careers. With the analysis of the interviews it was determined that the language barrier was mostly pronounced for students of social sciences and humanities (SSH), where language is the primary tool of communication. The language barrier was less important for the students studying in STEM sciences, where students and professors interact through formulas and written exams.

This paper analyzes the presence and percentage of women in representative bodies in Serbia, with an emphasis on the Parliament of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina (APV) and local Parliaments in towns and municipalities. The available data illustrates that women are under-represented in politics on every level of the administration. The under-representation of women in Parliaments calls for action and it can be expediated by granting greater rights to women already guaranteed by the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia. Therefore it is of utmost importance to create laws and political preconditions with the ultimate goal to increase the presence of women in politics and social life. The results presented also imply that women need to be more effectively and efficiently organized in order to acquire positions with higher influence in decision making processes on all political levels.