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The history of the Faculty of Philosophy

            The Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad was founded by a special law enacted by the Parliament of the People's Republic of Serbia in June 1954, after which the Republic executive committee formed a Home Committee. The task of this committee was to prepare the initial teaching plans, the function of temporary faculty bodies, to choose the acting dean, the first professors and administrative-technical personnel, to prepare the facilities and other conditions for the beginning of the Faculty's work. The Home Committee consisted of the following members: Aleksandar Belić, Pavle Savić, Velibor Gligorić, Vasa Čubrilović, Borivoje Drobnjaković, Mladen Leskovac, Miljan Mojašević, Tadija Pejović and Spasoje Čobanski. Already at the first sitting, the Home Committee elected Dr Borivoj Drobnjaković as the acting dean, who was the dean of the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade, and decided that there should be six study groups: History, South-Slavic Languages, Yugoslav Literature, English Language and Literature, German Language and Literature, and Mathematics with Physics. Around the middle of September that year, the Home Committee elected the first professors: Mladen Leskovac, Dr Milivoj Pavlović, Dr Mita Kostić, Đorđe Sp. Radojčić, Dr Petar I. Popović, Dr Mirko Stojaković, Dr Petar Đorđić, Dr Ivan Popović, Dr Pavle Ivić, Dr Bogoljub Stanković and Dr Milutin Garašanin.
            Since the Faculty was part of the University of Belgrade (as well as the Agricultural Faculty founded at the same time), this implied assistance in staff and other means from the University of Belgrade, along with the first group of professors, comprising of the greats of the Serbian science and culture. This way, the first generation of students, enrolled between September 5th and 15th, comprising of students from almost all parts of Yugoslavia, could consider themselves enrolled in a good school. This generation came to Novi Sad, to Vojvodina, which had offers as early as the 18th century (the year 1774) to open a college, with the intention of dissuading young Serbian men from going to school in Russia, but the Hungarian royal office opposed this. Several other initiatives had the same outcome. It was only in 1920 that the Faculty of Law was opened in Subotica, as part of the University of Belgrade. In multinational Vojvodina − with its noteworthy material and spiritual achievements, the renowned Matica srpska and the valuable experience of its scholars, gained previously in Eger, Pest, Vienna, Bratislava, and later in Belgrade, Zagreb and Ljubljana, with the rich literary fund of the Library of Matica srpska, with notable economic potential − was predestined and ready to be an institution of this sort. Those were the beginnings which were experienced as the natural "growth" of the environment, and later a success, which is characterized by its enviable rise over the past 50 years, as well as justified expectations. Its success (not just the Faculty of Philosophy, but also the University of Novi Sad, which was to be founded six years later) was "prophesied" by the great Aleksandar Belić: ‘I deeply thank you for the honour which is bestowed upon me, to start lecturing at the Faculty of Philosophy, and hopefully soon, the University of Novi Sad, or even better, University of Vojvodina. At the same time I wish to thank you for giving me the opportunity to express my extreme joy, here in the heart of Vojvodina, that it got this university, which it earned a long ago and which proved itself to be worthy of having in its environment a university whose good development is morally guaranteed in advance (1 December 1954).’
            The Faculty developed rapidly with planning, with the great enthusiasm of its employees and the all-round support of the community. The staff increased − in the beginning, by bringing to Novi Sad already established researchers or talented young people who began building their university career here. Later the Faculty started relying on its best students − graduate studies were opened in three study groups in the school year of 1961-1962, and the first two doctoral theses were defended in 1969 at the Faculty. The library was soon founded for the needs of teaching and science, the development of scientific research work was thoughtfully encouraged (both in individual and team work, which put Novi Sad at the forefront of Yugoslavia). The Faculty launched its first publication − the Annual Review of the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad, and what is especially important, it got involved in inter-university and international cooperation. By opening new study groups, it kept up with the needs of the community, primarily multi-national Vojvodina − the Lectorate was opened in 1957, followed by the opening of the Department of Hungarian Language and Literature in 1961 (the first group of 30 students was enrolled the same year), the Department of Slovak Language and Literature in 1961, and in 1981 the department of Romanian Language and Literature was opened in 1981 (its Lectorate was opened in 1974) and Ruthenian Language and Literature (its Lectorate was opened in 1972). In the school year of 1961/1962, the Faculty founded the departments of Ruthenian Language and Literature, French Language and Literature, Chemistry, Physics, Biology, and sometime later Geography. At the same time, the first students were enrolled. After the initiative of the Provincial government, in 1968 the Faculty was given the role of the founder of three independent scientific institutes − the Institute of Linguistics, the Institute of Hungarian Language Studies and the Institute of the History of Vojvodina, later to be integrated (1976) into the Faculty. With a versatile composition and overly large structure (14 study groups), the Faculty of Philosophy split into two faculties in 1969 - Faculty of Philosophy and the Faculty of Sciences. The study group for pedagogy was opened in 1972 and the one for psychology in 1982. The Department of Sociology and Philosophy established the study group for Marxism in 1978, however, two groups were later formed instead, within the broader frame of removing ideology from the society. Classical scholarship is  nurtured within the Department of History (former Institute), and folklore and folk culture at their corresponding departments.

The Faculty of Philosophy today

            Today, the Faculty of Philosophy is a modern and contemporary scientific-educational institution with 17 departments (Serbian Literature, Serbian Language and Linguistics, Comparative Literature, English Studies, Romance Studies, German Studies, Slavic Studies, Hungarian Studies, Romanian Studies, Ruthenian Studies, Slovak Studies, History, Philosophy, Pedagogy, Psychology, Sociology and Media Studies), more than 45 accredited study programmes on all three study levels (bachelor, master and doctoral). The Faculty has 14 centres, out of which we would like to single out the Centre for Serbian as a foreign language, where a large number of foreigners study Serbian, primarily students but also journalists, diplomats and businessmen from all continents. At the Centre for Languages, which is open for students and the general public, among other languages spoken in the world there are courses in Portuguese, Turkish and Persian. Chinese language and culture can be studied at the Confucius Institute (established in 2014). For all of the foreign languages taught at the Faculty, foreign language instructors are native speakers. At the Centre for the Professional Development of Teachers, there are programmes for acquiring pedagogical, psychological and methodical competences and lifelong learning. There is also the Centre for Applied Psychology with a laboratory for experimental psychology; the Centre for Behavioural Genetics, the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research and the Development of Researchers, the Centre for Folklore Research, the Publishing Centre, the Media centre, etc. The central library, the second largest library after the Library of Matica srpska, has over 600,000 volumes, along with digital and electronic editions available on the website. There are 6,000 students studying at the Faculty, with 400 teaching and administrative staff.
            The Faculty has two phonological laboratories with cutting-edge equipment, a laboratory for experimental psychology, a projection room with multimedia equipment and a HD/3D screen and three booths for simultaneous translation. The rooms are also equipped for holding video conferences. All of the offices and classrooms have computers connected to the internet, and wireless internet access is provided for an area of 12,000 square meters. Other modern means of teaching are also used − projectors, smart boards, etc. The Faculty has two fully equipped computer classrooms. The Department of Media Studies has a radio and TV studio with the latest audio and video recording equipment, as well as editing facilities. The Faculty staff develop platforms for e-learning. The modern student service operates with specially developed specialised software of the latest generation, which enables students to apply for exams through the web application, along with other benefits.
            All four main levels of the building provide access to persons with special needs, and soon there will be Braille labels installed to facilitate movement of the visually impaired.

International cooperation

            Traditionally, the Faculty cooperates with all important scientific and educational institutions in the region (in Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Croatia, Slovenia, etc.), and of course there is also cooperation with Austria, Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Russia, Poland, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Portugal, Turkey, Great Britain, Belgium and the United States, Mexico, Thailand, and South Korea. The Faculty signed many agreements which are the basis for cooperation − from student exchange, teaching and non-teaching staff, the exchange of publications, complementary scientific conferences, participation in doctoral dissertation defence boards, cooperation on scientific projects, and cultural events. It should be stressed that the Faculty is one of the 500 institutions in the entire world which has a Confucius Institute, which helps all our students, as well as other interested citizens, get to know Chinese language and culture better. There are about 30 foreign lecturers at the Faculty − some of them are here thanks to the long and remarkable cooperation with cultural centres, such as the French Institute in Serbia, the Austrian Cultural Forum, the DAAD Programme, the Camões Institute, the Cervantes Institute, the Yunus Emre Institute, Italian Cultural Centre, and since 2013, thanks to the Cultural Centre of Iran, there are also classes of Persian. Cultural activities organized at the Faculty for the students and the general public, such as film screenings, special themed lectures, book and magazine launches, workshops, expositions − all of this has been achieved because of the support given to us by the Goethe Institute, the embassy of Norway, the embassy of Mexico, British Council and many others.