ZADAR UNIVERSITY

Zadar University has been selected by Roberto Amati in relation to the real history of european integration, then enlisted in the UNIVERSITAS category, accompanied by own fact SHEET useful to the comprehension, completed of historical MAPS AND IMAGES or with a direct linking to the related Blog contents dedicated to the aeternitas and the future of Europe.

	FOUNDATION
Year	1396 A.D..
City	Zadar
Founder	Dominicans monks
Where	Regnum of Hungary-Croatia-Slovenia
Originary subjects	philosophy , theology

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	NOWADAYS
State	Croatia
Name	University of Zadar (Sveučilište u Zadru ex-Universitas Studiorum Iadertina)
Seates	Zadar
Degree programs	every scientific and humaninties disciplines
Library	Podružnica Studentska knjižnica
Collegium	NO
Alumni	Alumni Club of the University of Zadar
Famous teachers
Famous scholars
Awards	City of Zadar Award 2012 A.D.

Zadar university is among the oldest of Europe cause of its centuries-old university tradition, the longest in Croatia: following the tradition of ecclesiastical education, first mentioned in the X century, the Dominican higher education institution Studium generale, later known as the Universitas Iadertina (Iadera was the Latin name for Zadar), was founded as early in 1396 A.D.. The town of Zadar was not chosen as a university centre by chance: at the time, it flourished as the most important naval point in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, where the seats of governmental institutions were situated, including the seat of the Austro-Hungarian Ban and the Hungarian-Croatian War Navy.

The first Rector of the Zadar University was John of Dyrrachium in Albania, since the civitas’s General University succeeded the previously founded University of Dyrrachium that retreated to Zadar amid the mounting Turkish threats in South-eastern Europe. Up to 1553 A.D. (with the interruption from 1481 to 1495 A.D. due to the Ottoman invasion) Zadar’s Studium generale had been the first university consisting of 2 faculties, the lower and higher level studies of Philosophy and Theology: then it received the status of 'the privileged university', with the right to award the highest academic degrees, including a doctorate. Given that the number of doctorates was limited by the provinces of the Dominican Order, since 1692 A.D. the Dalmatian province was allowed to award 10 doctoral and 6 baccalaureate degrees.

In the epoch of the Napoleonic Wars, when Dalmatia became part of the French Empire and the French government abolished Zadar University in 1807 A.D., its professors were given a state pension and some of them continued their work with exceptional results such as Nikola Budrović, who became the translator and editor of the Croatian section of Zadar's 'Kraljski Dalmatin', the first newspaper in Croatian language. The abolition of Zadar University did not signify the end of the higher education in the city: just months before a lyceum that consolidated high school education (the gymnasium) and higher education was founded, so that the Zadar’s Lyceum offered a higher education level in surgery, medicine, chemistry and law. After a three-year activity the civil governor of Dalmatia, Vicenzo Dandolo, ordered special university studies to be formed out of the Lyceum, where students could earn a diploma to become a doctor, junior or senior surgeon, pharmacist, architectural engineer, surveyor and lawyer. Amid political turmoil, the aforementioned cluster of studies was initiated by the foundation of the Central School in 1810 A.D., when the study of Theology was also introduced: its first and only academic degrees were awarded to 20 graduates. Despite the initial successful achievements, the first modern University of Zadar Croatia​ was abolished due to financial scarcity only the year after, by the decree of Henry Bertrand, Governor of Illyrian provinces. Parallel to the Zadar’s Dominican University and to the Central School, the study of higher Theology at Theological Seminary Florio, founded in 1656 A.D., also existed in Zadar: after the Archdiocese of Zadar had become the seat of Dalmatian ecclesiastical province, the study of Theology progressed to a higher study in the Studium Theologicum, the central Seminary for Dalmatia (1828-1922).

During the revolutionary years in middle of XIX century, a private law school was active in Zadar (1848-1851): furthermore, Zadar was the centre of the Orthodox Seminary from 1869 to 1920 A.D.. The modern development of higher education in Zadar started only in 1955 A.D. with passing of the Act on Founding the University of Zagreb's Faculty of Philosophy in Zadar: Miroslav Krleža, a Croatian writer, had a significant role in founding the faculty, with the intention to emphasize a Croatian component of higher education development on the eastern coast of the Adriatic. At the time, some scientists were writing about the nucleus of the 'Adriatic' university that would have a seat in Zadar: the lectures at the newly founded Faculty of Philosophy in Zadar, a division of the University of Zagreb (see below), started in 1956 A.D.. 20 years later, the Faculty of Philosophy in Zadar was affiliated to the University of Split and during the first working years of this university, the Faculty of Philosophy in Zadar has been the largest higher education institution on the Croatian coast of the Adriatic. In 1961 a.D., the Pedagogical Academy was also founded (later incorporated into the Faculty of Philosophy) while in 1988 A.D. the Teacher Training College was separated from the Faculty of Philosophy in Zadar: it together with the faculty of Philosophy, made the basis of the Zadar University that the Croatian Parliament founded in 2002 A.D. renewed regarding its 14th century higher education tradition.

Nowadays, the Zadar University is the largest integrated atheneum in the Republic of Croatia, which includes 25 university departments: English Department, Department of Archaeology, Department of Classical Philology, Department of Croatian Studies, Department of Russian Studies, Department of Ecology, Agronomy and Aquaculture, Department of Economics, Department of Ethnology and Anthropology, Department of French and Francophone Studies, Department of Geography, Department of German Studies, Department of Hispanic and Iberian Studies, Department of Health Studies, Department of History, Department of the History of Art, Department of Italian Studies, Department of Library and Information Sciences, Department of Linguistics, Department of Pedagogy, Department of Philosophy, Department of Psychology university of zadar​, Department of Sociology, Department of Teachers’ and Preschool Teachers’ Education, Department of Teacher’s Studies in Gospić, Department of Traffic and Maritime Studies, Department of Tourism and Communication Sciences, Department of Theology. These perform studies on 3 levels: undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate. In order to organise and promote scientific-research activities, Zadar University has founded 4 scientific-research centres as its constituent units, such as: the Centre for Adriatic Onomastic Research, the Centre Stjepan Matičević, the Centre for Karst and Coastal Research and the Centre for Interdisciplinary Marine and Maritime Research - CIMMAR. In addition, there are 2 active centres for professional and teaching activities: the Centre for Gymnastics and Student Sport and the Centre for Foreign Languages.

The total number of students in the above mentioned studies is 6,000 and the total number of Zadar University’s employees is 598, out of which there are 422 teaching staff (311 Doctors of Science or Doctors of Arts) and 16 Masters of Science or Masters of Arts. In the area between Suhovare and Islam Grčki, the atheneum has leased 195 ht. of agricultural land (the University’s agricultural estate Baštica) on which various cultivars of apples and vine are grown: besides apples, apple products such as 100% natural apple juice and apple chips can also be purchased, high quality wine, made out of selected grape varieties characteristic for our climate, is also produced. Since 2010 A.D. the bookstore 'Citadela' operates within Zadar University premises: all the university publications, but also the publications of various Croatian and foreign publishers used for scientific research and classes, are available in it. In addition, the visitors can buy different souvenirs with motifs of the University of Zadar, as well as the products of the Baštica estate.

Zadar University cooperates with numerous Croatian and foreign institutions and academic associations, through membership in international organisations and communities, and through cooperative contracts with other universities. It actively encourages the participation of its units in international competitive projects, incoming and outgoing mobility of students, academics and academic administration, joint studies with foreign universities, contacts and encounters with domestic and foreign representatives of the academic, political and economic communities (diplomats, rectors, representatives of international organisations and government, representatives of religious institutions, etc.). Special attention is given to the cooperation with local and regional communities through the preparations and execution of joint projects, participation in creation of strategic development planning documents, the encouragement of the civil society development, organising various activities with the aim to popularise science, encourage research and sustainable regard for cultural and natural heritage. Owing to the diligent and responsible work of its staff and students, Zadar University performs scientific, teaching and professional work, grows and progresses each day and contributes to general development.

Zadar University participated in the 35th EAIE Conference and Exhibition held in Gothenburg, when has already signed Memorandums of Understanding and University of Zadar Erasmus+ Inter-institutional Agreements with universities from a numerous countries. It also participates in the Central European Exchange Programme for University Studies (CEEPUS) conducted via its networks and since the academic year 2024/2025 participates in 14 CEEPUS networks (among them there are five so-called 'umbrella' CEEPUS networks). Additionally, since 2003 A.D. the University of Zadar is a member of the following international associations: EUA (European University Association); DRC (Danube Rectors´ Conference); UniAdrion (a virtual university of Adriatic-Ionian basin countries); the Alps-Adriatic Working Community Rectors´ Conference; IUC Dubrovnik (Inter University Centre Dubrovnik). Since 2004 A.D. Moreover, Zadar University is a signer of the MAGNA CHARTA UNIVERSITATUM declaration.

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Not far from Zadar exists the other historical croatian University of Zagreb.

The roots and heritage of the University of Zagreb date to the Academy which was established and managed by the Society of Jesus: classes there were held from the end of 1662 A.D. and the university rights were granted to it by a royal charter 7 years later. From 1726/1727 A.D., the first university sections (Philosophy, Dogmatic and Moral Theology) were joined in the organisational sense by the Canon Law Section. But following the abolition of the Jesuit order in 1773 A.D., the higher education institution was reorganised into the Royal Academy of Science, within the 3 Zadar University Faculties of Philosophy, of Theology and of Law.

The legal continuity from the Jesuit higher education institution at the Royal Academy was maintained by the Faculty of Theology, also reflected in the study of law, whose backbone was in 1776 A.D. the Canon Law Section itself as the only stable one: from the Jesuit academy, the Professor of Canon Law and a cleric Franjo Milašinčić transferred to the Canon Law Section, becoming the first head of the Faculty of Law of the University of Zagreb (as a Vice-Dean of the study of law). After he was ousted from the Royal Academy of Science during the Josephinian Reforms, from 1784 A.D. onwards the Faculty of Theology operated within the Seminary of Zagreb, constituting the sole existing and unbroken legal link with the Jesuit Academy: Canon Law was also one of the subjects taught there but at the Faculty of Law, it was dissolved and reinstated in the modernist reform in the mid-19th century due to the general belief that there could be no contemporary and sustainable study of law without the study of canon law.

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