University of Belgrade

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University of Belgrade
Универзитет у Београду
Established: 1838
Type: Public
Rector: Branko Kovačević
Faculty: 4,289
Students: 89,827
Location: Belgrade, Serbia
Campus: Urban
Website: www.bg.ac.yu
University Seal

The University of Belgrade (Serbian: Универзитет у Београду, Univerzitet u Beogradu) is the oldest and most important institution of higher education in all of Serbia. Founded in 1808 as the Great Academy in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it merged with the Kragujevac-based Lycee into a single university. Formally it was granted its university rights by a royal charter in 1905. It is also one of the largest universities in the Balkan region, counting over 89,000 students and 4,200 members of teaching staff.

The University has 31 faculties, 8 scientific research institutes and a system of university libraries and information centres. The faculties or academic departments are clustered into five groups based on their academic characteristics and they include: faculties for biotechnical sciences, social sciences, medical sciences, natural sciences and mathematics, and faculties of technical sciences.

The University has over 89,000 students which can choose from around 150 basic educational programs, around 1,700 postgraduate students also study at the University of Belgrade in various programmes. Since its founding, the University has educated more than 330,000 bachelors, around 21,300 masters, 29,000 specialists and 12,600 doctors.[1]

Contents

[edit] History

University in 1890
University in 1890

Though its roots go back to 1808 when the Great School was founded in Belgrade, it officially became a university on February 27, 1905 when a royal charter was granted to the institution. At the time it had three faculties: engineering, law and philosophy. The University was located in Captain Miša's building where its Rectorate is still located.

The university experienced massive growth and expansion in the years preceding the WWII and especially after the establishment of Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. In the 1960s and 1970s the University of Belgrade greatly increased its resources and space. The enrollment grew exponentially as the university developed into a notable regional and international educational institution. Many students from the countries participating in the Non-Aligned Movement were educated in Belgrade. The university is noted for its exceptional programmes in engineering, architecture, philosophy and social sciences.

Ever since the 1980s, the quality of university's programs began to deteriorate due to political instability in the country, subsequent War in Croatia, War in Bosnia and war in Kosovo and chronic lack of investment in the resources, students and the faculty. As a result many of the university structures are dilapidated and lack modern teaching equipment worthy of a higher education institution of this size and reputation. During the socialist era, the university faculty, especially in the social sciences, tended to be populated according to political affiliation which seriously impaired the quality and impartiality of academic research and teaching. The state had de facto control over the university. This trend continued well into the era of Slobodan Milošević's rule in Serbia, when the university in Belgrade often struggled with outside political pressure and lack of academic and administrative autonomy. Often faculty and university leading figures would be changed and scores of professors and students be removed or retired for dubious reasons; these issues are still largely unresolved. Understandably, Belgrade university was a recognizable centre of political opposition during the 1990s in Serbia. Massive anti-government protests were staged by Belgrade university students and professors during late 1996 and early 1997 which seriously shook down Milošević's regime and forged a strong democratic movement that eventually toppled his government in the autmn of 2000.

Ever since October 5, 2000 overthrow the university has made strides to improve its facilities, resources and teaching quality. There have been several initiatives to reform the higher education legislation in the country. The government has nevertheless been extremely slow to move and the initiatives mainly remain mulled over at various committees without any real results coming about. University has lately made great efforts to reform its internal structure and adapt better to the Bologna convention of higher education in Europe. Even though positive changes have been made lately and the university has improved the quality of its services and academics it still has a long way to go before crucial measures are taken for the university to become truly independent of political influence rebuild its resources. Recently the university governing council has been preparing a new university statute which should soon take effect and open way for thoroughly reforming this institution. The new statute should closely follow the Bolgna European higher education protocol recommendations, make the university administration more efficient and transparent, improve access to students and provide clear infrastructure and more transparent rules regarding admissions and appointment of teaching and administrative staff. Above all this new statute should as well finally firm up university's academic and financial autonomy and so assure a better future of its development.

University of Belgrade has been the driving force for the establishment of almost all other universities today present in Serbia, Montenegro, Republic of Macedonia as well as many universities in Bosnia and Herzegovina.



[edit] Faculties

 This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please improve this article if you can. (July 2007)

[edit] List of the 31 faculties

[edit] Electrical Engineering

The School of Electrical Engineering [5] (Serbian: Електротехнички факултет - Elektrotehnički fakultet).

This faculty has had a long history, but current faculty was founded in 1948. The Faculty has a number of departments:

1. Department for Software Engineering

2. Department for Electrical Engineering

3. Department for Computer Technics and Informatics

4. Department for Telecomunications and Informational Technologies

5. Department for Signals and Systems

6. Department for Energetics

7. Department for Electronics

8. Department for Physical Electronics

[edit] Physics

The Faculty of Physics [6] has five departments:

1. Department for General Physics

2. Department for Theoretical and Experimental Physics

3. Department for Applied Physics and Informatics

4. Department for Meteorology

5. Department for Physics and Technics

6. Department for Physics and Chemistry

Faculty of Physics was founded in 1990s by dividing Faculty of Nature and Mathematics on six separate faculties (Faculty of Physics, Faculty of Mathematics, Faculty of Biology, Faculty of Chemistry, Faculty of Physical Chemistry, and Faculty of Geographics ). Faculty of Physics works in close collaboration with School of Electrical Engineering [7].

[edit] Organizational Sciences

The Faculty of Organizational Sciences (FOS) is the faculty for management and information systems in Serbia. FOS belongs to the group of technical faculties, altought it is faculty for menagement, and is a constituent part of Belgrade University. It was founded in 1969, after having been initiated by more than 200 organizations with the aim of strengthening the economy with valuable contemporary knowledge in organization, management and information systems.

[edit] Faculty of Philology

Philological studies have a very long history in Serbia, which is why the Faculty of Philology can be considered one of the oldest educational institutions in Serbia, although it appeared as an independent faculty only in 1960, after it separated from the Faculty of Philosophy. When it began working, it had only 11 chairs (studying groups). Nowadays, around 1500 students begin their studies at this Faculty each year. They have 29 studying groups to choose from:
1) Serbian language and literature
2) Serbian language and literature with general linguistics
3) South Slavic philology
4) Bulgarian language and literature
5) Serbian literature with South Slavic literatures
6) World literature with literary theory
7) Russian language and literature
8) Polish language and literature
9) Czech language and literature
10) Slovakian language and literature
11) Ukrainian language and literature
12) Italian language and literature
13) French language and literature
14) Romanian language and literature
15) Spanish language and literature
16) German language and literature
17) Scandinavian languages and literatures (students choose Swedish OR Norwegian OR Danish as their first foreign language, but must understand all three)
18) Dutch language and literature
19) English language and literature
20) Arabic language and literature
21) Turkish language and literature
22) Oriental philology (includes studies of Turkish, Arabic and Ottoman languages)
23) Japanese language and literature
24) Chinese language and literature
25) Albanian language and literature
26) Greek language and literature
27) Hungarian language and literature
28) General linguistics
29) Library and Computer studies

Four other languages: Macedonian language, Slovene language, Korean language and Portuguese language can be studied at this Faculty as minors, but not as majors. The Faculty also developes several science and research centres, such as: The International Slavic Centre, The Centre for Serbian as a Foreign Language, The East-Asian Centre and others.

[edit] Further reading

  • University of Belgrade 1838-2005 : a centennial of the first Serbian university law, 2005, ISBN 8675220243
  • The benefactors of Belgrade University : Gallery of SASA, October - November 2005 : [exhibition], 2005, ISBN 8670253844

[edit] References

  1. ^ University of Belgrade official statistics, see columns 1 (bachelor), 5 (master), 7 (specialist) and 9 (doctorate)

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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