History

The School of Applied Mathematics and Informatics, as a part of the University of Josip Juraj Strossmayer in Osijek, was established by the decision of the Senate on November 30, 2022. On April 26, 2023, the Commercial Court registered the School in the Commercial Register. On May 23, 2023, the Ministry of Science and Education issued an Authorization for Higher Education, based on which the School was entered in the Register of Higher Education Institutions on May 25, 2023. Finally, on July 1, 2023, the School commenced its operations and activities.

The School of Applied Mathematics and Informatics was established by a change in legal status and the name of the Department of Mathematics, which was founded in 1999. This change occurred after long, intensive, and demanding negotiations and activities that took place over more than five years at the university level. During this period, the process of establishing the School received strong support from numerous representatives of employers and companies in the surrounding area, which is particularly important in the context of the School’s influence on the economic and social development of the eastern part of the Republic of Croatia.

The most important reasons for the transformation of the Department into a School can be summarized as follows:

• The School of Applied Mathematics and Informatics, by its name and profile, distinguishes itself from similar higher education institutions in the Republic of Croatia, ensuring the recognition of the University of Josip Juraj Strossmayer in Osijek in the field of mathematics with an emphasis on applied mathematics and computer science in the broader domestic and international educational and research space.
• The School of Applied Mathematics and Informatics study programs are uniquely designed to serve the economy of the City of Osijek, the Osijek-Baranja County, and the eastern part of the Republic of Croatia. The significance of such study programs and scientific research is notably recognized in the National Resilience and Recovery Plan 2021-2026.
• A significant feature of the study programs at the School of Applied Mathematics and Informatics is the inclusion of mathematical concepts that are not typical for programs in technical or social sciences, thereby ensuring clear complementarity with study programs offered by other components of the University of Josip Juraj Strossmayer in Osijek.
• The School of Applied Mathematics and Informatics has a higher level of autonomy compared to the Department of Mathematics, simplifying administrative procedures and ensuring easier management.

As previously mentioned, the Department of Mathematics was established on October 1, 1999, as the first university department in the Republic of Croatia. It was organized following the model of Western European universities, especially German universities. From the very beginning, it was oriented toward applied mathematics in terms of both scientific research and education. The core of the university Department of Mathematics began to form formally as early as 1993 with the establishment of the Association of Mathematicians Osijek, the Institute for Applied Mathematics, and the initiation of regular Mathematical Colloquia. In 1996, the scientific journal Mathematical Communications was also launched.

With its establishment, the former Department of Mathematics also took over two four-year undergraduate teaching programs from the former School of Education at the University of Josip Juraj Strossmayer in Osijek: Mathematics-Informatics and Mathematics-Physics. With the initiation of the Bologna Process in Croatia, the Department of Mathematics at the University of Josip Juraj Strossmayer in Osijek obtained one of the first authorizations for its newly structured study programs in line with the Bologna Process in 2004: (1) University Undergraduate Study of Mathematics and (2) University Integrated Undergraduate and Graduate Teacher Study of Mathematics and Informatics. In 2005, authorization was also granted for the University Graduate Study of Mathematics with specializations in Financial and Business Mathematics (which has since been renamed Financial Mathematics and Statistics), Mathematics and Computer Science, and Industrial and Applied Mathematics. In 2017, the University Undergraduate Study of Mathematics and Computer Science began, and in 2019, the University Graduate Study of Mathematics and Informatics with a teaching specialization was introduced. It is essential to emphasize that many scientists at the School of Applied Mathematics and Informatics obtained their doctoral degrees from foreign institutions or were directly mentored by researchers from foreign institutions.

Since 2011, the Department of Mathematics (now the School of Applied Mathematics and Informatics) has been involved in the implementation of the Joint University PhD Program in Mathematics, offered jointly by the University of Osijek, Rijeka, Split, and Zagreb.

The School of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science is located in the former “Gaj” military barracks at Trg Ljudevita Gaja 6. The facility was assigned to the University in 2001 as a result of the negotiations between the University of Josip Juraj Strossmayer in Osijek, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Ministry of Defense.