Brief history of the Department
At the initiative of the Dean of the Faculty of Forestry prof. Dr. Milutin Knežević and prof. Dr. Dušan Oreščanin, who at that time served as Assistant Minister of Economy of the Republic of Serbia in the field of timber industry, on 10th September 1956 the Council of the Faculty of Forestry adopted the Statute of the Faculty of Forestry, University of Belgrade, which established two departments:
– Department of Forestry and
– Department of Wood Industry
The Statute of the Faculty of Forestry was officially confirmed by the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia on 12th October. Therefore, this date is celebrated as the day of the establishment of the Department of Wood Industry. The establishment of the Department of wood industry, the first one in forestry schools in former Yugoslavia, resulted from the need for highly trained experts in timber industry, which was rapidly developing and employing professionals of general Forestry who were not sufficiently trained to perform complex tasks of wood industrial processes. The decision on the establishment of the Department of wood industry was supported by the former Professional association of producers of wood and wood products in NR Serbia, as evidenced by a letter from the Secretary of the Association Eng. Dušan Goldner No.542 of 22nd October 1956.
After completing all the necessary procedures Management of the Faculty of Forestry at its meeting of 21st November 1956 adopted a decision on the commencement of classes at the Department of wood industry with same curriculum which already was already in use in the first year of the Department of Forestry, with the possibility that students apply for the Department of wood industry until the end of the winter semester of academic year 1956/57. In the same decision of the Management Faculty asked the Vice Dean for Education and the Teaching Commission to make appropriate changes to the existing curriculum in the first and second years of studies in order to harmonize the teaching process in both departments. At that time, the Faculty of Forestry had modest classrooms and practice rooms at its disposal: only 4 classrooms and 8 practice rooms. Yet, this was not an obstacle to proper organization of teaching in both departments.
With the Decision on amendments to the Statute of 1956 adopted on 4th January 1960, 5 departments were established at the Faculty of Forestry:
– Department of forestry,
– Department of mechanical wood processing
– Department of chemical wood processing,
– Department of residential greening and
– Department of erosion and floods.
In the 1966 Statute the single four-year studies, as well as graduate studies were performed in four departments:
– Department of Forestry,
– Department of Wood Industry
– Department of Horticulture and
– Department of erosion and land reclamation.
With the 1973 statute of departmens became self-governing institutes, i.e.:
– Institute of Forestry,
– Institute for Wood Processing,
– Institute of Landscape Architecture and
– Institute of Water erosion and Flood Control.
Since the Statute of 5th April 1988 the Faculty is a unique organization that carries out teaching and research activities.
In the context of teaching activity it provides VIII-1 and VIII-2 level of professional qualifications within four departments:
– Department of Forestry,
– Department of Woodworking,
– Department of Landscape Architecture and
– Department for Protection against Erosion.
Research activities cover fundamental, developmental and applied research.
In the 1994 Statute the Faculty consists of four departments:
– Department of Forestry,
– Department of Woodworking,
– Department of Landscape Architecture and
– Department of Erosion Control.
This organization of the Faculty and department names lasted until 2002, when the 2002 Statute changed the names of two
Departments while the organizational structure remained the same consisting of the:
– Department of Forestry,
– Department of Wood Processing,
– Department of Landscape Architecture and
– Department of Erosion and Torrent control.
Following the modern needs of wood industry professionals for training personnel in addition to the basic knowledge they needed to have specific professional and specialized knowledge. The Accreditation Committee of the Department of wood processing in its letter no. 10511/11 of 7th December 2012 submitted to the Chamber of the Department of wood processing suggested to the Department of wood processing to change name to the
Department of technologies, management and design of furniture and wood products.
In the reasoning for the change of department name the Commission stated that:
– the newly proposed name covers the activities of classification field 16 (Law on Classification of Activities of the Republic of Serbia): Wood processing and wood products, as well as classification field number 3: furniture and other products;
– the newly proposed name of the Department fully reflects the real situation in terms of the output of jobs for engineers who are educated in this Department, as well as activities pursued by them in practice.
The changed name of the Department and the new program Technologies, Management and Design of Furniture and Wood Products completely fulfill the criterium of multidisciplinarity, which is one of the fundamental principles on which modern study programs should be based.
Following the adoption of the Commission proposal for accreditation by the Council of the Department of wood processing the proposal was adopted at the meeting of the Academic Council of the Faculty of Forestry on 27th December 2012 (decision no. 11179/1).
In 2013, with amendments to the Statute of the Faculty of Forestry no. 01-627 / 1 of 24th January 2013, former name of the Department of wood processing was changed to the
Department of technologies, management and design of furniture and wood products.
Since 2013, the Faculty consists of four departments:
– Department of Forestry,
– Department of Technologies, Management and Design of Furniture and Wood Products,
– Department of Landscape Architecture and
– Department of Ecological Engineering for soil and water resources protection.
Chronology of the Department in the past 60 years clearly shows the dynamism of its development, which was conditioned by the monitoring of needs of the industry, on the one hand, and trends in the science of wood art in the country and the world on the other. At the same time, dynamic changes in this department significantly affected the launch of changes in other departments of the Faculty of Forestry as a whole.