Serbian students face high housing costs and tight program competition

Student housing demand rises each academic year across Serbia’s major university cities—Belgrade, Novi Sad, Niš and Kragujevac. Monthly rents for the most sought‑after apartments range from €350 to €700, and many students now prefer larger shared flats to cut per‑person expenses. In addition to rent, tenants must budget for a deposit (typically one month’s rent) and utilities such as electricity, water, heating, internet and building maintenance, which together raise total monthly outlays.

For the 2026/2027 academic year the University of Belgrade reported 17,000 applicants, about 1,000 more than the previous year, with all seats filled at four faculties. The most competitive programmes were psychology, medicine, dentistry and architecture, where the number of candidates per budget seat exceeded four in several cases (e.g., 4.2 applicants per psychology seat, 4.7 per dentistry seat in Novi Sad, 4.6 per medicine seat in Kragujevac). Some technical programmes struggled to attract enough candidates despite strong employer demand, leaving vacancies in certain faculties.