The oldest collection of the Belgrade University dates back to 1835 and marks the beginning of the practice to collect specific object for the needs of teaching and research. Today, there are over two dozen museums and collections affiliated to the Belgrade University while most of them are still more academic than public institutions. Such traditional practice may change soon because of the new Law on Museum Activity, demanding a different managing approach.

The relation of university practice in regard to its academic heritage, in the context of the new Law on Museum Activity is tackled through possible perspectives on how to integrate different management models. The comparative method was applied.  

University museums are often at the outskirts of official museum community because, from the legal point of view, they represent “museums within an institution”, hence the museums founded not by a state or a local community government but by an institution, such as university. As such, most of the university museums and collections are less accessible to the general public, more available to academic public and sometimes, not even to them. According to Holton (Holton, 2000) artifacts related to science are residues of physical actions of doing science while separation between culture and scientific knowledge leads to terrifying effects of bewilderment and homelessness. University museums are symbiotic institutions in this sense, and the true challenge is to represent this unique heritage beyond academic walls while adapting to the newly established criteria.

The new Law on Museum Activity is all about visibility and availability of museum heritage, introducing, among other things, online central register/inventory at the Ministry’s websites.

On the other hand, university heritage is often, if at all, managed by faculty or department responsible for particular collection and usually with limited resources. The reason for this kind of management is the genesis of university museums that were founded by scholars for scholars, in order to promote and improve teaching and science within the discipline. The ongoing transition process toward (more) public museum leads to implementation of dual management system, trying to meet the national, legal criteria while at the same time adapting its traditional policy due to the rethinking of museums.