Testifying the connection between the Faculty of Engineering in Bor and RTB Bor is the fact that company Zidjin last year signed a contract on professional work experience practise with 38 students that’s valid until their graduation
The Technical Faculty in Bor was founded in 1961 as a precise result of the need to educate essential personnel of highly educated engineers for the needs of the economy in Eastern Serbia, which was also expanding at that time, says Nada Štrbac, Ph.D., Dean of the Technical Faculty in Bor, speaking to CorD.
Professor Štrbac, your faculty marks 60 years of its work and existence next year. This is confirmation of how important this higher education institution has been to Bor since its establishment, given that RTB Bor is there. When was it hardest to work at this college, considering that you’ve been there for 32 years and can surely recall both beautiful and less beautiful things?
– The Faculty has grown over time and became a valued institution of higher education, which is known both within national frameworks and at the international level. Alongside my 32 years of professional engagement at the Technical Faculty in Bor, I also studied at this faculty, in bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D. studies, which ensures my feelings towards the college are deep and extremely positive.
There were certainly many challenges during that long period, but also many more beautiful moments. However, when a person does a job that they love in an environment of students and colleagues who fulfil them, in the end only only remembers the beautiful things, while the challenges serve as a meaningful experience that’s passed on to younger generations.
Cooperation between the Technical Faculty in Bor and RTB Bor has always been at the highest level
How has cooperation been for the Faculty since RTB Bor was acquired by a new Chinese owner? Does it differ from cooperation to date and do your partners have any specific requirements for you and the generations of new students who will presumably one day work for this Chinese company?
– Cooperation between the Technical Faculty in Bor and RTB Bor has always been at the highest level and in our mutual interest, considering the large number of engineering graduates from our Faculty who work there. The priavatisation of RTB Bor by international company Serbia Zidjin Bor Copper has resulted in our cooperation remaining at a high level, but has also led to some new opportunities for our students.
It should be noted that Zidjin last year signed a contract on professional work experience practise with 38 of our students that’s valid until their graduation, with the possibility of them gaining employment at that company. Moreover, representatives of this company are included in the Council of Employers of the Technical Faculty in Bor, which we are just in the process of forming and which will further bolster our cooperation.
The Technical Faculty in Bor is the only technical engineering college not located in Belgrade. How much has that additionally obliged you to lead generations and generations of students on the right path and, in so doing, to ensure they don’t lag behind their colleagues in the capital in any way?
– The fact that the Technical Faculty in Bor belongs to the University of Belgrade, as the only one of this University’s 31 colleges to be located outside Belgrade, is both a great honour and an obligation. As such, the Faculty’s teaching process on its accredited study programmes is conducted at the highest possible level of quality. This also applies to the quality of scientific research work, both by teachers, associates and students of our Faculty. Alongside this, the fact that the college is located in a major industrial centre gives our students the opportunity, in addition to the high level of teaching at the college, to have great opportunities to acquire practical work experience at the facilities of companies in Bor.