Original article (in Serbian) was published on 16/7/2024; Author: Stefan Janjić
“I think the many times repeated claim that Aleksandar Vucic is the best student in the history of the Faculty of Law is problematic, which, although often mockingly, is persistently repeated without any hesitation, even more in the opposition media than in the pro-government media” – a reader wrote and attached a link to a text from the web portal N1 titled “The best student in the history of Faculty of Law was not careful enough: Polygraph is not evidence in criminal proceedings”.
The reader is right: when Vucic is mentioned in public as “the best student of the Faculty of Law”, it is mostly done with derision (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), according to a pattern that should point out the paradox: here, the best law student, but does not know… that a polygraph is not evidence in criminal proceedings; that the work of the SNS call center is punishable; that the constitution foresees a president who reflects the unity of the Republic of Serbia…
We analyzed a large number of archival documents in order to compile a list of the best students of the Faculty of Law in Belgrade, with a special focus on the class of President Vucić (1988/1989). For those who want a quick conclusion, without many digressions, we could summarize the outcome in two questions and answers: Was Aleksandar Vucic an excellent, above-average student? Without a doubt – he was. And was Aleksandar Vucic the best law student? Without a doubt – he was not. Not even in his class, let alone in the history of the Faculty of Law.
Where does the statement about “the best student” come from?
The school year 2015/2016. The year began at the Faculty of Law in Belgrade with the lecture “Serbian State between East and West”, which was held by Aleksandar Vucic, then Prime Minister. “The dean took me everywhere and I can see that everything has changed in the appearance of the faculty”, said the visiting lecturer at the time.
Dean Sima Avramovic stated that Vučić “was and remains one of the best students”. But “one of” was lost in the meantime, and many later stated that the dean declared Vucic “the best” student.
At the end of October 2017, Aleksandar Martinovic (SNS) brought a photocopy of Vucic’s index to the Serbian Parliament, so he read the names of the subjects from which he received scores, and he also informed the deputies about the average grade of the president: 9.44.
After that, many began to call Vucic “the best student” – far more often with irony (Srdjan Milivojevic, Zoran Zivkovic) than with admiration (Marko Atlagic).
Was Vucic a good student?
On the website of the Faculty of Law, there is a searchable database of graduated students, from which we learn that Aleksandar Vucic started his studies in 1988, and finished on November 16, 1994, that is, in a little more than six years.
Although it could be said that Vucic completed one year of study in an average of one and a half years – even with such an “extension” he was above average. At the reception of Vucic’s freshmen class (1988/1989), dean Ljubica Kandic stated that studies can be completed in four years, but that the average length of study at the Faculty of Law is seven years.
So, Vucic finished his studies in a shorter time than average with a very high average grade – 9.44.
Was Vucic the best student in the history of the Faculty of Law?
Even if Vucic finished his studies on time, with an average grade of 10.00, it would be unfair to call him “the best student in the history of the Faculty of Law”, because there are many who had impeccable performance.
In order to gain a clearer insight into the “best” list, we combined several archival sources: faculty chronicles published in the “Yearbook of the Faculty of Law”, the newsletter “Acta diurna”, the archived version of the University of Belgrade website, as well as available biographies of prominent lawyers who graduated from the Faculty of Law.
For decades, the faculty and university have been awarding recognition to the valedictorian, taking into account the average grade and length of study. Unfortunately, the data for certain school years is missing, and we cannot be sure whether the recognition was awarded in those periods at all. We wrote to the Faculty of Law, but we did not receive an answer.
In total, we identified 54 valedictorians, starting with Grozdana Vucicevic Petrovic: she received the award in 1966/1967, and finished her studies with an average of 9.91. The long list of winners includes many well-known names: law professors Miroljub Labus, Stevan Lilic, Dragor Hiber, Ivana Simovic Hiber, Vladimir Vuletic, lawyer and politician Vladimir Cvijan, Constitutional Court judge Vesna Ilic…
The data on the average grade was available for 42 valedictorians from 1967 until today, where the lowest average grade (on our incomplete list) was 9.2 (1982/1983), and the highest – 10.00. Moreover, we came up with the names of 23 valedictorians who graduated from this faculty with maximum performance. And it doesn’t end there, because an average of 10.00 does not guarantee that someone will receive this prestigious award. For example, in the 2011/2012 school year, six students graduated with the highest grade.
And what would be the “average of the average”, i.e. the average amount of the average grades of the best students of the Faculty of Law? Judging by our list – 9.87, significantly more than Vucic’s 9.44. Let’s also add that all valedictorians of the previous 12 years had an average grade of 10.
What did the reception of Vucic’s class look like?
In 1988, the “Branko Krsmanovićc” choir welcomed the freshmen at the Faculty of Law in Belgrade, and the famous Petar Kralj took part in the opening ceremony. Dean Ljubica Kandic greeted the students, after which Vice Dean Ratko Mitrovic gave a speech on justice and truth:
“You chose a vocation whose essence is the pronouncement of justice and truth. To be successful in your studies and later in your profession, in addition to a fund of knowledge in the field of social sciences, you must have a developed ability for abstract and logical thinking, and a cultivated speaking culture, but in addition to all that, one character trait. You must be truthful and honest people. (…) A great jurist is not one who legalizes lies and injustice with the help of law, who, as the people say, looks for loopholes in the law in order not to use them to legalize loopholes in human and social morality. Then it is not a question of use but of abuse of rights. The essential meaning of law is to use it to establish the rule of truth and justice, and not to serve as a means of manipulating them”.
Was Vucic the best student in his class?
Unfortunately, we were unable to find information about who was declared the best graduate student in Vucic’s class, and we do not even know if the recognition was awarded in 1992.
However, by looking at the archival materials, we can unequivocally confirm that there were better students than the current president of the Republic. In the “Yearbook of the Faculty of Law” for 1990, we fond a list of awarded students with an average grade above 8.5, and Aleksandar Vucic is also on that list: file number 88-8, average grade 9.57. Above him are two other students from the same class with an average of 10.00, as well as Goran Vesic, the current Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, with an average of 9.85.
However, we are talking about awards for the completed first year, and the most dedicated students of the class enrolled in 1988 had already completed the second year. Among them was Sanja Stepanovic, who at that time had an average of 10.00, and today works as a professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences. She graduated from college in four years (October 1992) with an exceptional average grade of 9.90, and in “Borba” a few months before graduation she was listed as the best student at the Faculty of Law. We sent an inquiry to Professor Stepanovic to find out if she was officially declared the valedictorian, but we did not receive an answer.
Robert Sepi also studied in Vucic’s class, and he states in his biography that in the 1991/1992 school year (so when he was still a student) he received the “Law Faculty Award for the best results achieved during his studies (valedictorian)”. He started his studies in 1988 and finished them in 1994. Today, he works as a legal advisor in the organisation Transparency Serbia.
“I received that award as a student because it was the jubilee year of the Faculty of Law, i.e. that year the 150th anniversary of the existence and work of the Faculty of Law was celebrated”, Sepi says and adds that he still keeps the gold coin that was awarded to him then. “My success has not changed since then, but after that, I was not invited to receive any award or praise. Therefore, I do not have an answer to your question about how the prizes were awarded and whether I know who was the valedictorian at the end of the studies”.
Finally, while we don’t have exact information about who was the valedictorian of the class enrolled in 1988, we do know that Aleksandar Vucic was not that student. If you have information that we were unable to find, you can write to us.
