BUSINESS
ZORAN BUNDALO PH.D., DIRECTOR, HIGH RAILWAY SCHOOL OF VOCATIONAL STUDIES, BELGRADE, SERBIA
Our Time Is Yet To Come The High Railway School of Vocational Studies, Belgrade has been educating future staff for the needs of the railway for 63 years, while it additionally organises prestigious international scientific and professional consultations, participates in the development of studies, projects and research aimed at improving the development of rail transport in the country and the region
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n accordance with the current needs of the economy and society, and within the scope of the Academy of Technical and Artistic Vocational Studies of Belgrade, we will continue developing new study programmes that educate students for certain professional profiles for which a clearly expressed need exists, states professor Bundalo. • The High Railway School of Vocational Studies, Belgrade was established as far back as 1957, when education courses lasted two years. How has the college and its programmes changed? - There was initially only one department – Traffic – but in 2007 the School grew into the The High Railway School of Vocational Studies. Basic vocational studies are taught in five study programs: Railway Transport, Railway Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering inTransport, Commercial Railway Operations and Public Urban and Industrial Traffic. Vocational master’s studies are taught in three study programmes: Transport Engineering, Electrical Engineering in Transport and Commercial Operations in Transport. Basic vocational studies last three years (six semesters) and carry a total of 12 |
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180 ECTS, while vocational master’s studies last an additional two years (four semesters) and carry 120 ECTS. • Interest in the The High Railway School of Vocational Studies among young people is growing year on year. Do you have the spatial capacity for all of them? What kind of working conditions do you offer them? - In addition to personnel and the modernising of teaching, there have also been investments in space and equipment. Today we have an amphitheatre with 163 seats, six traditional classrooms, three computer suites and three laboratories, cabinets of teachers and associates, the spaces of the school’s professional services and a library. All classrooms are equipped with projectors that ease our work and the conducting of teaching, especially for applied vocational classes. We also have
several specialised equippedspaces for laboratory and experimental work – laboratories for physics and electrical engineering, energy, electronics and stable electric traction plants, computer laboratories, rooms with a specialised simulator of stationary settings and telecommunications control in rail traffic. • You have eight study programmes, 2,000 square metres of space and the latest equipment, but how do you stand when it comes to staff; to lecturers? - The school has 25 teachers who are employed on a full-time basis and cover over 80 per cent of classes. The scientific title of ‘doctor of science’ is held by 13 professors of vocational studies, while the academic title of ‘master of science’ is held by five lecturers. One teacher of practical courses and six teaching assistants hold the academic title of
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