University of Niš

University of Niš
Универзитет у Нишу Univerzitet u Nišu
Established	1965
Type	Public
Rector	Miroljub Grozdanović
Academic staff	13
Admin. staff	1,502
Students	27,000
Location	Niš, Serbia
Website	www.ni.ac.rs

The University of Niš (Serbian: Универзитет у Нишу, Univerzitet u Nišu) is a university located in Niš, Serbia. It was founded in 1965 and it consists of 13 faculties with 1500 teachers, 630 staff and extracurricular staff, and around 30,000 students. Since its foundation the University diploma was acquired by more than 50,000 students, including 1300 foreigners.

The University comprises a university library "Nikola Tesla" and 13 academic units of which the Faculty of Technology is located in Leskovac and the Teacher-Training Faculty in Vranje.

History

University of Niš

The University of Niš was incorporated as an independent degree-granting institution on June 15, 1965.

Its establishment rounded off an important, in many ways pioneering, period in the more recent history of the town which started in 1960 when the first undergraduate programs commenced in Niš under the academic patronage of the University of Belgrade. They were institutionalized as the faculties of Law & Economics, Medicine, and Engineering, constituting a core from which a more and more complex and richer physiognomy of the University would systematically develop, following the demands of times and life itself.

The University started its independent life with 234 full-time teaching staff and 6,800 students. The increase of the student population, the development of new disciplines and the rising needs of the immediate and broader industrial and social environment brought about a reorganization of the existing faculties and foundation of new ones.

Accordingly:

• 1968: the Department of Electronics grew into the Faculty of Electronic Engineering;
• 1970: the two departments of the Faculty of Law and Economics became independent faculties;
• 1971: the Departments of Mechanical and Civil Engineering became separate, independent faculties. In the same year, the Faculty of Philosophy was established with its seven departments: Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Sociology, Psychology, English and Physical Education;
• 1972: the Faculty of Occupational Safety grew out of the Faculty of Civil Engineering;
• 1979: the Faculty of Technology was founded;
• 1987: the Faculty of Philosophy grew to include the Department of Serbian Language and Literature;
• 1993: the Teacher-Training Faculty in Vranje enrolled its first generation of students;
• 1995: the Faculty of Civil Engineering expended its academic mission to include a new department - of Architecture which was consequently added to its name;
• 1998: the academic structure of the Faculty of Philosophy widened to include the Department of History. In the same year the Faculty of Fine Art and the Faculty of Applied Art and Design of the Belgrade University of Art opened their academic divisions in Niš;
• 1999: the Faculty of Science and Mathematics and the Faculty of Physical Culture grew out of the Faculty of Philosophy;
• 2000: the University family became richer for six new departments: Geography and Biology with Ecology (adjoined to the Faculty of Science and Mathematics), Philosophy, Pedagogy, Slavic & Balkan Studies and Fine Arts (attached to the Faculty of Philosophy).
• 2002: the Faculty of Fine Arts is established with three study options - for visual arts, applied arts and music - previously functioning within the Département of Fine Arts of the Faculty of Philosophy.
• 2004: New department was formed at the Faculty of Philosophy: Department for Journalism.
• 2008: The Department of Serbian Language and Literature of the Faculty of Philosophy was divided into the Department of Serbian Language and Department of Serbian and Comparative Literature.

Organization

The beginning of the third millennium finds the University as a medium-sized, mature and well-developed academic community comprising thirteen academic units, i. e. faculties:

• Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture
• Faculty of Economics
• Faculty of Electronic Engineering
• Faculty of Arts
• Faculty of Law
• Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
• Faculty of Medicine
• Faculty of Occupational Safety
• Faculty of Philosophy
• Faculty of Physical Culture
• Faculty of Science and Mathematics
• Faculty of Technology
• Teacher-Training Faculty

Eleven faculties are located in Niš, the Faculty of Technology is in Leskovac and the Teacher-Training Faculty in Vranje.

Most of the mentioned faculties have a composite structure, i. e. various departments, divisions or majors offering wide and diversified study and research opportunities at both the undergraduate and the graduate level, including opportunities to obtain Ph.D. degree.

Over the past 45 years, the University teaching staff has grown to 1,558 and its student body to more than 29,000 including 71 foreign students.

So far, more than 49,000 students have graduated from the University, 2,254 have earned master's degree and 1,275 have successfully defended their doctoral dissertations.

University Building

View of the University of Niš from Nišava River

The University main offices are situated in one of the most representative city structures, an edifi ce built in the late 19th century, which was formally recognized as a cultural treasure of major signifi cance in 1979.

The building was constructed way back in 1887, in the city center, at the right bank of the river Nisava, for the needs of the district authorities of that time. The monumental building bears characteristics of the neo Renaissance style, designed by an unknown Viennese architect. During its long history, it was first housing the District Court, the District Government and the Military Headquarters and then, in the period from July 26th 1914 to October 16th 1915, when Niš was the Serbian war capital, the building was the seat of the Serbian Govern- ment and its Ministry of the Interior. It was to this edifice that the formal declaration of war was directed from Austria-Hungary on July 28th 1914.

In 1930, the building became the administrative seat of the Morava County, after the World War II it housed the District Administration, while in 1967 it was assigned to the permanent use to the University of Nis.

In 2008, marking the 120th Anniversary of its building, the University of Niš has, for the first time, completed the necessary adaptation and construction works in order to enable access to persons with disabilities to all University facilities.

See also

• List of colleges and universities
• Niš

External links

• University of Niš official website (Serbian) (English)
• University library "Nikola Tesla"