Affirmative Re-Action: Attitudes Towards Roma Students in Serbia
Abstract
The education system in Serbia has been facing the issue of underrepresentation of sensitive social groups in (higher) education. Although Roma people are estimated to make up around 2% of Serbia’s population, they account for only 0.2% of active students (according to the Republic Institute of Statistics, 2022). One measure for correcting long-term discrimination and ultimately equalising minority groups with the majority is affirmative action. Affirmative action has been implemented sporadically in Serbia’s education system since 2003 but became official in 2009 through a quota system. Since then, certain progress has been made in increasing the inclusion of students from vulnerable groups at all levels of education. However, it is still necessary to work on activities that not only concern the provision of opportunities for participation in education but also provide social inclusion. Therefore, the main goal of this paper is to examine the perceptions and attitudes of majority students towards affirmative measures for Roma students. This is investigated via an originally constructed questionnaire, completed by a total of 190 students of the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad. The results show that the majority of students support affirmative action, although male respondents demonstrate more negative attitudes towards it. The findings also indicate a correlation between ill-informed students and those with greater social distance towards Roma people. In order to increase the number of Roma students, the authors suggest increasing awareness about affirmative action among both majority and minority groups, and creating diversity courses and networking programmes in higher education institutions.
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