First came the sound of a police siren, then a megaphone announcement: "Dear lecturers, we hereby inform you that the blockade of the Faculty of Philosophy is about to begin."

This is how the wave of student blockades at the University of Novi Sad in Serbia began on November 2.

Olga Pantic, a first-year communications student, was on shift at the university cafeteria at the time. She left work and joined her fellow students when she heard the announcement. Since then, the faculty has become her home: she eats, sleeps and lives there.

"I've got so used to it that I actually feel more comfortable here than at home," she told DW. "Everything revolves around the blockade. It's like a job, especially before major protests."

Right from the word go, the students were absolutely clear about their demands, which included political and criminal accountability for the collapse of the canopy at the entrance to Novi Sad railway station last November, which killed 15 people and seriously injured two others.

The group subsequently opened the doors to students from other faculties who wanted to learn how to start their own blockades.

"We often let them use our amphitheater and classrooms for meetings and to plan how to start their own blockades, how to organize their plenary assemblies. Some faculties even held their first assemblies at our faculty," said Tatjana Rasic, another student.

Within weeks, almost the entire university had ground to a........

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