Dean's Words

More than seven decades ago, on November 20, 1954, the Faculty of Agriculture was founded in Novi Sad. The need to establish a higher education institution, whose main activity is higher education in the field of agriculture, was more than logical at that time. The country had recently emerged from the war, and the backbone of development and security was precisely agricultural production. It was necessary to create new generations of experts who would be engaged in a very responsible activity in all parts of the country, and especially in Vojvodina, in the production of food. The Faculty has fully justified this entrusted role, and in more than seventy years of existence it has produced thousands of experts, whose knowledge and work form the basis of modern agriculture in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, Serbia and beyond.

The Faculty of Agriculture is one of the two oldest faculties of the University of Novi Sad and is the only public higher education institution in the territory of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina that educates experts in the fields of agriculture, landscape architecture and veterinary medicine. The Faculty of Agriculture has become an indispensable and reliable partner and support for the domestic economy, individual producers, state institutions and international organizations. If we look back at the development of the Faculty so far, we can see that it has always managed to adapt to changes, respond to the challenges it has been exposed to and take a step forward. New scientific fields have been conquered, new subjects and study programs have been introduced, new laboratories with modern equipment have been opened, all according to the demands and needs of society and the market. It is necessary to continue on this path. The Faculty is currently one of the most active institutions at the University of Novi Sad, but also in Serbia, in terms of Horizon Europe projects, where it is not only about participating in them but also coordinating large international projects that our researchers successfully implement. The scope and type of services that our laboratories provide to the economy are growing year by year, and we especially emphasize the services of our laboratories that they implement through programs entrusted by state institutions, such as the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management. In a rapidly changing world, the place of agriculture and education in agriculture is very important, but agriculture, like many other productive activities, is very vulnerable to changes, whether they come from nature or are conditioned by social movements.

Experience from other developed countries tells us that only agricultural universities, or faculties, that have timely adapted to new circumstances survive, offering attractive study programs to the education market that reflect new trends in society, based on high-quality scientific work, but also study programs with a high share of practical knowledge. We must also mention significant steps towards the internationalization of studies and the increase in the share of foreign students. International projects in the field of education, joint study programs with universities abroad, summer schools, and courses in English have already contributed to greater visibility of our faculty on the international scene and made it attractive to young people from all parts of the world.