Student review [#18427] for Applied Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition
at University of Belgrade

University of Belgrade Faculty of Philology has a lot of majors. Currently, I am in my 4th year of studying the Arabic language and literature. The studies take 4 school years to complete, then you can choose to get a masters degree. As far as the subjects go, there is a wide variety of subjects, starting from the mandatory ones that include the language itself, conversation and translating, all the way to optional subjects that we can study in other departments. We take the opportunity to learn subjects from other departments in order to be more knowledgeable about the culture and language. The professors are extremely competent, we have a teacher for grammar, conversation, literature etc who are all wholeheartedly dedicated to their jobs.

They also organize one on one consultations with students, considering that our group is very big (80 students decide to study this language per year) they cannot give each and every student their full attention and focus during classes. Since we come from Serbia, we do not have many opportunities to perfect not hear the language outside of our school setting, you can see how limiting this fact is. Besides the language, we learn about Arabic cultures. But, the issue is with the teaching program itself. We study from books that date back from 1977, we are not able to keep up with the modern usage of the language. More emphasis is placed on the accent in grammar, so much so that the professors are not able to divulge into a deeper conversation with the students, this creates a huge problem. Students finish their studies having a great understanding of the grammar, we can understand what someone is telling us, but, because of the lack of communication in the teaching program, we cannot form more complex sentences.

The concept of the program goes like this, besides mandatory subjects we have optional subjects as well, we have about 16 exams per year which can be a bit challenging. Also, we do not have enough time to study the language itself because we have to study the optional subjects (if chosen) that we usually choose by the level of difficulty, as we do not have enough time to meet all the expectations and study for all of the exams. The exam deadlines are organized in a very weird and peculiar way, we have 6 exam deadlines per year, we get about 10 days in between the first two deadlines. After that, we have a break that lasts up to 3 months until the next two deadlines. As for the literature, the faculty has provided a library for students of oriental studies which is enriched with books that are rare, this makes the studies a bit easier. The fault in the course is that we do not have an exchange student program, there are no options to travel to Arabic countries in order to perfect our speaking skills unless paid for out of the students pocket – this is a huge setback in my opinion, especially considering other majors do have these options.

Another issue is the lack of classrooms, which inevitably leads to constant class rescheduling or very long breaks in between classes. The equipment is old, we use very old computers, most of the classrooms have very outdated blackboards. The positive side is that we have a student administration that is very dedicated to the student body, always ready to help and explain if we don’t understand something. We do not have reading rooms in our university, but every department has its own library which can be used by the students freely, of course, if there are no classes occurring inside. The tuition fee is very expensive, 120000 dinars or 1000 euros, which has not went down during the covid-19 pandemic and lockdown in 2020. Regardless of the fact that we’ve had online classes which were not enough for us to comprehend the coursework of the following school year. Of course, we have the option to study on the university budget, we only need to have 48espb per year.

The university also has a section for rhetoric studies, theatric studies, soccer teams, volleyball teams, an acting group and also the student parlament which is always more than ready to jump and defend student rights. We do not have a lunchroom, but, there are cafeterias that are by all of the universities in Belgrade. The food is good and cheap, for students who are studying on the university budget it’s as low as 70 dinars, which is roughly a little less than 50 cents. This is a very positive thing taking into consideration that living and studying in Belgrade is very expensive considering the countries standards.

There are also campuses, the monthly fee is about 3000 dinars or 30 euros. They are very nicely decorated and equipped, each room has it’s own bathroom and the space capacity is 2-4 beds per room. Within the campus there is also a reading room, nurses room, relaxation room, recreation room and a room for cultural events. It is surrounded by nature, but very close to the faculties. The students who get to live on the campuses are students studying on the university budget or students that come from low income families and foreign students (which we have a lot). We have a saying ”he who has never lived on campus has never experienced the real student life”. Students who aren’t on the university budged also have the ability to live on campus for the economy price of 10000 dinars, or 90 euros. The campuses are very nicely equipped, every block has it’s own security guard who ensures the safety of the students. Students who would prefer a bit more privacy can also rent out apartments in Belgrade, but the prices are higher. In these past few years the property prices have jumped up, now, apartments in the center range from 250 to 400 euros, while apartments on the outskirts of town are more affordable, costing from 150 to 250 euros per month.

By using their student card, students get many discounts for museums, theaters, the movies, there are many options to choose from. Also, the nightlife in Belgrade is very big, there are many coffee shops, clubs and other places to go outside, you could say that Belgrade lives off of it’s students. Personally, I would recommend it to everyone to study in Belgrade, it’s one of the cities in Europe that has the best nightlife, good student activity organization, anyone can find their place here and find something interesting.