History

The University of Novi Sad was being created in a special milieu built by generations of foremost intellectuals, as well as institutions of particular national significance, in the towns of Vojvodina. Their duration is measured in centuries. The foundations of higher education in today’s Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, and Serbia as a whole, were laid around 1740, with the establishment of the seminarynamed Collegium Vissariono – Pawlovicsianum Petrovaradinense in Novi Sad. Among the most prominent forerunners of the University of Novi Sad were Norma – school for the education of Serbian teachers, founded in Sombor in 1778, and Preparandija, a teachers' college founded in 1812 in Szentendre, whose seat was moved to Sombor in 1816. The most significant role in the development of scientific thought from the 19th century onwards is held by Matica Srpska, the oldest cultural and scientific institution of the Serbian people, founded in 1826 in Pest, whose seat was relocated to Novi Sad in 1864. The development of legal sciences and education on the territory of today’s Vojvodina was especially influenced by the Faculty of Law in Subotica, established in 1920.

The great synthesis of aspirations, visions, ideas and achievements in the field of science and education took place in 1960, when the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia adopted the Law on establishment of the University of Novi Sad, which brought together previously founded faculties into a unique academic community of Novi Sad.

The University of Novi Sad connects people, space and time. Nowadays, it is one of the largest educational and research centers in Central Europe, with more than 50,000 students and 5,000 staff at 14 Faculties and three Institutes, in four historic university cities, Novi Sad, Sombor, Subotica and Zrenjanin.