University of Split and the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

Presentation of The Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

Humanistic and Social Studies had existed in Split even before the foundation of the University of Split in 1974. Namely, The College of Pedagogy in Split, the oldest college founded by the decree of the Education Committee of the ZAVNOH Presidency (National Anti-Fascist Council of People's Liberation of Croatia) on 24 March 1945. During its sixty-year history, this institution underwent several changes regarding its programme, structure and status.

As a legally valid independent institution, the College of Pedagogy had been fully functioning from the year of its foundation until 1974 (as the College of Pedagogy and the Academy of Pedagogy), when the merger of several different institutions of higher education resulted in the foundation of the University of Split. From 1978 to 1990 the Humanistic and Social Studies programmes were organised as a single department within the Faculty of Philosophy in Zadar, under the University of Split, and from 1990 to 1998 within the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at the University of Split.

At the end of 1998, a decree issued by the Croatian government removed the Primary Education and the Pre-School Education Studies from the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at the University of Split. That decree founded the Faculty of Primary Education at the University in Split as an independent structural unit of the University of Split.

The Department of Humanities was founded as a branch of the University of Split in 2001 with three double-major studies – Croatian Language and Literature, English Language and Literature, Italian Language and Literature and, since the academic year of 2003-2004, the affiliate programme of History at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Zagreb which is based on an agreement between University of Split and Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb.

Since 6 October 2005 the Faculty of Primary Education and the Department of Humanities have constituted a new institution - the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Split - which marks the establishment of three new study programmes and departments: Sociology, Philosophy and Art History.

According to its proposed programme, the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences intends to establish new studies in the areas of social and humanistic sciences, thus adding additional importance to its foundation and the considerable role it plays in the development of the university as a whole.