The Chamber of Commerce of Serbia – Center for Circular Economy organized the Round Table “Challenges of academic education in the field of environmental protection” on Thursday, September 19, 2024 in the premises of PKS.
Prof. Dr. Jelena Ješić participated in the discussion about the identified problems and the definition of the joint press release. Representatives of other academic educational institutions dedicated to environmental protection also participated in the round table, and the program was moderated by Siniša Mitrović, head of the Center for CE PKS.
Representatives of 10 higher education institutions participated in the discussion:
- Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade
- Faculty of Agriculture, University of Belgrade
- Faculty of Mining and Geology, University of Belgrade
- Faculty of Forestry, University of Belgrade
- Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy, University of Belgrade
- Faculty of Science, University of Novi Sad
- Faculty of Technology, University of Novi Sad
- Faculty of Engineering Sciences, University of Kragujevac
- Faculty of Business Economics, Edukons University
- Faculty of Applied Ecology “Futura”, Belgrade Metropolitan University
The meeting was opened by Snežana Ružić, representative of the Ministry of Education – Sector for Higher Education, with the message that urgent and strategic action is needed to overcome the problem due to the reduced interest in academic programs in the field of Environmental Protection. The focus of the discussion was on the problems and difficulties that faculties focused on environmental protection and ecology face in their daily work, as well as on the consequent reduction in the number of enrolled students. Siniša Mitrović, the head of the Center for Circular Economy, emphasized that PKS has a special responsibility for the transfer of knowledge in this area in rural areas, especially in the SME sector. Carbon taxes need urgent support, because we don’t have carbon tax verifiers.
Team member Assoc.Prof. Jelena Ješić presented the EDUCIRC2022 project and emphasized the importance of the project’s results in the form of 4 monographs entitled: Live Development, Green Transition of Europe and the Western Balkans: Challenges and Perspectives, Economic Development Policy, Sustainable Local Rural Development, Circular Economy as a Driver for Creating a New Economic identity of the Republic of Serbia: attitudes, implementation, challenges and perspectives, which will be used in the educational process. As a result, we received a joint press release in which the most important problems and proposals and measures for improving the position of the faculties included, as well as for the popularization of the profession of environmental protection/ecology engineer, were listed.