HOW IT ALL BEGAN?
Bearing in mind that the FRY succeeded insufficient number of economists with higher education, and that the vocational training was acquired in the College of Economics and Trade, founded in Belgrade in 1937 (which became the Faculty of Economics, Belgrade University in 1947) in that period, as well as at the lower levels (high schools and courses), it is obvious why the new social conditions and the rapid development of society after the Second World War opened the question of the necessity of change and adapting of the entire social system to the new conditions.
During that period, the issue of the necessity of establishing Colleges of Economics and Trade was raised, as the companies were often led by under-trained and under-qualified personnel (there was only 1.1% of directors with a university degree in 1953), who could not meet incrreasingly complex problems of social and economic development, as well as the limited power of the Faculty of Economics to educate sufficient number of qualified staff.
Under the circumstances, the Serbian Association of Economists, along with the Chambers of Commerce (Federal Chamber of Foreign Commerce, Federal Industry Chamber and the Chamber of Commerce of Serbia) and banks in Belgrade (National Bank, the Yugoslav Investment Bank and the Association of Serbian Communal Banks) initiated founding the Colleges of Economics and Trade, since it was concluded that the education of economists was underdeveloped, that it was expensive and that there was a wide range of jobs in the economy that didn’t require economists with the university degree. In the first half of 1956, Assembly of Serbia passed a law on the higher education and shortly afterwards the Decree on the establishment of the Colleges of Trade in Belgrade and Nis.
By establishing of these colleges, it was expected to provide training of the staff with higher professional qualification, profiles focused on the activities in the field of business economy, but also to fill the gap between secondary and high education. Furthermore, the inflow of educated economists to the economic organizations was expected to be optimized and the time and the cost of their education to be shortened which was expected to result in decreasing of the cost of education. Solving the basic tasks would have certainly been made easier by close cooperation with business and other organizations (training of staff, enhancing curricula with the experience gained in professional practice) so the schools had been instructed accordingly. The end of this period was the beginning of the School in Belgrade. The School began its work on the 1st of November 1956. so this date virtually represents the beginning of Belgrade Business School - Higher Education Institution for Applied Studies.
COLLEGE OF ECONOMICS AND TRADE
The approval of the curriculum by the Council for Education created the conditions to commence the School in Belgrade on the 1st of November 1956, which was soon named College of Economics and Trade.
FINANCE AND ACCOUNTING COLLEGE
The former socio-economic situation, as well as the profile and structure of professionals currently employed in the accountancy and finance sector, made it necessary to take certain actions towards their improvement, that is, their re-training and education.
The College’s memorandum of association set out the main tasks regarding the education of professionals who would hold associate’s degrees in the field of administrative and financial business, as well as accounting. The college had no departments, however the 3rd and 4th grade students were channeled towards certain industries, such as agriculture (and agricultural cooperatives in particular) as well as various services (retail, catering and tourism).
INTERNATIONAL TRADE COLLEGE
The prevalent socio-economic conditions, which made it necessary to found other colleges, also led to the establishment of International Trade College. Namely, Trade Chamber of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia had decided that there was not only a shortage of skilled professionals in the field of international trade, tourism and customs service, but also that their profile and structure were not satisfactory enough to meet current needs. Besides, a small number of ill-equipped old-school professionals could not keep pace with the new trade conditions and mode of operation, especially because of their ignorance of foreign languages, so it was obvious that they needed to be replaced by younger people who would learn foreign languages and become competent to do the trading in a new way.
INTEGRATION
Socio-economic situation made it necessary to introduce measures to rationalize the net of colleges in Serbia. To that aim, three economic colleges in Belgrade, that is, the College of Economy and Commerce, Finance and Accounting College and International Trade College, began rounds of talks and discussions. The conference held on 20 May 1968 resulted in a resolution to integrate all three colleges into one- the College of Economy, whose main purpose would be to educate future economists holding associate’s degrees. Apart from that, the new College was expected to retrain the employees already engaged in economic and commerce-related jobs and to organize the research studies into the field of enterprise operations and staff-related problems, as well as to render concrete help to businesses in need.
COLLEGE OF ECONOMY
College of Economy, Belgrade-based, began to operate on the 1st of October 1968, as the first of its kind. By submitting themselves to the integration into one college, the three colleges’ collectives aspired to accomplish certain aims: to build strong relationships with the industry partners and reach out to other educational institutions by training administrative staff for their future positions in various industries and public services, as well as to enable future professionals to meet current needs of enterprises which had introduced new technologies and so created space for specialists as well as to speed up general economic development, facilitate more modern and cost-efficient education and training.
COLLEGE OF APPLIED INFORMATICS AND STATISTICS
Parallel with the College of Economics in Belgrade, the College of Statistics operated in Belgrade, which was founded long ago, in 1958, as a school of federal importance by the Decision issued by the Federal Executive Council. The college was funded by the Federal budget and it was operational until April 1966, when it lost its status together with all the other schools founded by the Federal Executive Council and its status was legally unresolved until 1976. In that year, it was integrated with the College of Applied Informatics.
COLLEGE OF ECONOMICS AND INFORMATICS
By integration of the College of Economics and the College of Applied Informatics and Statistics, the College of Economics and Informatics was founded (1987). The main objectives of their programme and spatial integration were to integrate economics and informatics for the purpose of creating the business content on which the following would be based: education process, designing of modern and standard education of high profile experts who will be able to respond to the needs of modern business, faster development of research and its more complete linking to educational activities, and more rational use of personnel and equipment.
BUSINESS COLLEGE
Business College was founded as the result of efforts put in over several decades, and especially as the result of experience of integrated schools and several business schools whose study programmes served as a basis for determining the concept of work, plans, programmes, and methodology in transforming of the College of Economics and Informatics into Business College.
BELGRADE BUSINESS SCHOOL
In conformity with the Law on Higher Education (article 83) and Articles of Association of Business College, at the meeting held on the 24th of May 2002, the Board of Directors of Business College reached a Decision regarding the change of the College name and expansion of activities. With the consent of The Government of the Republic of Serbia, The College was renamed to Belgrade Business School with a Decision reached on the 22nd of August 2002.
In nearly fifty years of work, by means of systematic integration and permanent organizational, programme, and human resources development, a system of education which participates in global economic competition of work and capital was created. This education system confirmed in just three years that the decisions on changes, reached by both the School’s Board of Directors and the Serbian Government, were the right decisions to make, which was acknowledged by the state authorities. The School perspective is based on timely and standard work, and the words on the occasion of its fiftieth anniversary do not relate only to its past and current state, but also to a nearer and distant future perspective of the School.
In the context of understanding and interpreting the current state and the future of the School, the programs of its five departments provide the best evidence: Business Informatics and Electronic Business; Management; Finance, Accounting and Banking; Marketing and Trade; and Taxes and Customs.
BELGRADE BUSINESS SCHOOL - HIGER EDUCATION INSTITUTION FOR APPLIED STUDIES
Continuity in work, more then sixty years of experience, modernized curricula, and exceptional conditions for studying and its technical capacities make BBS today the most attractive and the largest school of its type, not only in Serbia, but also in the Balkans.
BBS is today a higher education institution following the domestic and global trends in multidisciplinary scientific areas of information technology and economic orientation, promoting the concept of applied studies, building exactly those skills and competences of students that modern society demands.
Teaching in School is organized for seven accredited study programs at basic applied studies, as well as two study programs at specialist applied studies and one study program at master applied studies. By distinguishing itself with a great flexibility, School has constantly been adjusting its educational concept to modern trends taking place in the European field of education and with the market requirements as well. In this regard, School has accredited two new study programs at master applied studies in the field of Information Technologies and Public Administration.