5th Anniversary of the creating of a fourth Slovene university - the University of Nova Gorica

Date of publication: 16. 3. 2011
History

The Council of the Republic of Slovenia for Higher Education at its meeting on 17 March 2006, confirmed the application of Nova Gorica Polytechnic for a change of status to university, thus enabling the creation of a fourth Slovene university - University of Nova Gorica.

The efforts to establish a university in the Gorica region are over a century old. It started its operations in the 1995/96 academic year as the School of Environmental Sciences, the first international graduate school in Slovenia, founded by the Municipality of Nova Gorica and the Jožef Stefan Institute of Ljubljana. Due to the introduction of new study programmes and the expansion of scientific research activities, the School was reorganised in 1998 and renamed to Nova Gorica Polytechnic. In 2006 the institution changed its status and became the University of Nova Gorica. It was founded by the Municipality of Nova Gorica, the Municipality of Ajdovščina, the Jožef Stefan Institute and the Scientific Research Centre of the Academy of Sciences and Arts. In 2005, the senate of the Nova Gorica Polytechnic adopted a decision that the Nova Gorica Polytechnic should change its status and be renamed to the University of Nova Gorica. On 17 March 2006 the Council of the Republic of Slovenia for Higher Education, confirmed the application of Nova Gorica Polytechnic for a change of status to university – University of Nova Gorica. From then on, the development progressed even faster, both in the field of research and development activities as well as study programmes.

Today, the University of Nova Gorica is still a young, vital, research-oriented and internationally involved university. The education provides at seven schools: the School of Environmental Sciences, the School of Engineering and Management, the School of Applied Sciences, the School of Humanities, the School of Viticulture and Enology, the School of Arts, and the Graduate School. The University of Nova Gorica is also the only Slovenian university acting abroad. The Faculty of Environmental Studies has its premises in Gorica, Italy, and the Economics and Techniques for the Conservation of the Architectural and Environmental Heritage study programme is carried out in Venice, in the premises given to us by the municipality Venice.

Research is conducted by five laboratories (the Laboratory for Environmental Research, the Laboratory for Astroparticle Physics, the Laboratorij of Organic Matter Physics, the Laboratory for Multiphase Processes and the Materials Research Laboratory); three centres (the Centre for Atmospheric Research, the Centre for Systems and Information Technologies and the Wine Research Centre); and the Institute for Cultural Studies. University's research laboratories are equipped with state-of-the-art research equipment, the value of which amounts to approximately €2.2 million. Our researchers participate in small and large international projects and cooperate with the most prestigious institutions. As an example, we should mention the cooperation in the construction and operation of the world's largest observatory Pierre Auger for measuring ultra-high-energy cosmic rays with a surface area of 3,000km2 and the cooperation with ICGEB, EPFL, Imperial College, Sinchrotron in Trieste, Sinchrotron in Hamburg, KEK in Tsukuba etc.

A vital link between local economy and higher education has been forged by the establishment of the Primorska Technology Park, which integrates technologically innovative companies that facilitate the transfer of knowledge and development initiatives to the entrepreneurial environment. Since 2006, we also have 16ha of wine-growing property VILINA and our own production of wine.

Our university is intensively involved in research projects and EU study-exchange schemes. The exchange of professors and students in the framework of the Erasumus Mundus has recently increased. We are especially proud that our postgraduate programmes are also interesting for foreign students who are coming to the university from all over the world and represent 46% of the postgraduate student population. The university itself is becoming an attractive environment for scientists and professors and the number of employed experts from abroad is constantly rising and currently represents 15% of all employees.

The most important project, which is now before us, is building a campus of the University of Nova Gorica – Park of knowledge.