Slovenia gets its sixth university
Novo Mesto, 28 November - Slovenia got its sixth university on Tuesday, as a private higher education centre in Novo mesto featuring four faculties was transformed into a university. The new university was accredited by the state for a five-year period.
Novo mesto
A press conference presenting the establishment of the Novo mesto University
Photo: Rasto Božič/STA
Novo mesto
The seat of the newly-established Novo mesto University
Photo: Rasto Božič/STA
The new university consists of the Faculty of Business, Management and Informatics, the Faculty of Business and Management Sciences, the School of Technologies and Systems and the Faculty of Health Sciences.
The head of the Higher Education Centre, Marjan Blažič, told the press today that the National Agency for the Quality of Higher Education had issued a decree on the university's founding in September and that the decision had become final last week.
The chancellor is to be appointed in the next six months, said Balažič.
The university is open for cooperation with other faculties in Novo mesto and is hoping to become a national centre of science to promote intellectual, ethical, cultural and economic potential of the region.
Its founders hope it will become an established member of the Slovenian higher education institutions by 2022 and gain international acclaim by 2030.
More than 600 students study and some 100 professors lecture at the four faculties this academic year. There is no tuition fee for undergraduate studies, while the faculties provide for 30% of their funds themselves.
Slovenia has three public universities - in Ljubljana, Maribor and Primorsko, and two privately-held universities in Nova Gorica.
The youngest of them was founded in Nova Gorica earlier this year, at the end of February. Its chancellor is former foreign minister and veteran diplomat Dimitrij Rupel.