Specialized Master's studies at the Faculty of Agriculture
During the formation and development of the AgTech Supercluster, the idea of forming something significant for this industrial sector also developed. Already during the mapping of the goals, mission, and vision of the supercluster, member companies expressed the need for requalification and upgrading of employees, precisely in the field of digitalization in agriculture and food production.
Internal surveys and discussions on the improvement of the AgTech ecosystem within the cluster have shown that there is a significant need for improvement in the current educational system and strengthening its capacities to respond to labor market demands by combining modern agronomic knowledge with knowledge in the field of information technology.
The idea of establishing a unique and specialized Master's academic study program that will educate future master engineers and thus respond to the needs of the economy, emerged at the very beginning of the work of the supercluster. The objectives of this undertaking were clear: to design a program tailored to the needs of the economy and thus tackle the challenges of present and future agriculture from the perspective of introducing and developing the latest technological achievements. Member companies of the AgTech Supercluster continuously provided their insights during the definition of the structure, scope, and functionality of the newly proposed master's study program, thereby contributing to the knowledge that students will take away from the program to be current and immediately applicable.
In partnership with leading higher education and scientific research institutions in the Republic of Serbia: the Faculty of Organizational Sciences and the BioSens Institute, the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Belgrade has formed a multidisciplinary team of professors and experts from the industry in the field of modern agricultural production who jointly work on the formation of a new master's study program. The program will be realized according to a dual system - half of the classes will take place in companies that meet the conditions for the realization and demonstration of the latest technological processes, and which will be able to find new employees among students while also providing young engineers with the opportunity to be trained to work in innovative and technologically most advanced companies.
The Master's study program - Digitalization in Agriculture and Food Production, which will be accredited according to the dual system at the Faculty of Agriculture in Zemun, will begin enrolling new students in 2024. In addition to eminent professors from the faculty, researchers from the BioSens Institute, the European center of excellence in the application of information technology in agriculture, will also participate in the realization of this master's program. Taking into account the announcement of the participation of numerous technologically advanced companies in the agricultural sector in this project, great interest is expected in enrolling in this master's study program, as the number of places is limited to 30.
