8/11/2019 Pbf_prijevod a Film Final

1/2

In the very heart of Zagreb, dominating the beautiful triangle formed between the Mimara

Museum, the Westin Hotel and a popular Zagreb high school playground, a large whitebuilding of the University of Zagreb is situated. This is home to two Faculties: the Faculty of

Food Technology and Biotechnology and the Faculty of Mining, Geology and PetroleumEngineering.

At the Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology more than one thousand students

attend lectures, conduct their practical and laboratory work, study and acquire knowledge,

developing skills and competences they will need as future Bachelors of Food Technology,

Biotechnology or Nutrition, or as future Masters of Biotechnology, Bioprocess Engineering,

Food Engineering, Food Safety Management, or Nutrition at related sectors of the industry.

However, the beginnings of the studies of Food Technology and Biotechnology can be traced

back to before much earlier than this building was built. On the 26 th of April in 1956 the

Croatian Parliament declared the establishment of these studies and as of the academic year of

1956/57 the first generation of students enrolled in the Department of Food Technology and

Biotechnology of the Faculty of Chemistry, Food Technology and Mining.

Since the development of specific technologies was fast and the number of students enrolling

in the Faculty was constantly increasing, the Faulty of Chemistry, Food Technology andMining was further divided into separate Faculties: the Faculty of Mining and the Faculty of

Technology, and later, in 1980, the Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology was

finally established as a separate autonomous Faculty celebrating, in 2006, its 50th

anniversary.

So, let's go inside and see how the Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology looks like

today. The first thing that awaits students on entering are not lecture halls, nor laboratories,

but the students' restaurant, a place to take a break, have a cup of coffee, or a quick meal

between lectures.

Next to the students' office there are the premises of the Students Union branch-office, where

students gather, discuss various issues and make important decisions aimed at improving the

conditions of their studying. They also organize various students meetings and sport eventsthere, arrange their website and the students' newspaper. In short, this is the students' own

little space.

If we continue our walk, then we come to the central part of the building, the part where allthe lectures are held. We come to a big multimedia hall which can seat around 200 students

and is equipped with the latest teaching technological tools.

At the Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology students can enroll into one of the

three undergraduate studies offered: the Study of Food Technology, the Study of Nutrition or

the Study of Biotechnology. Each study takes three years to complete and, after graduating,

students are awarded the title of Bachelor of Food Technology, Bachelor of Nutrition, or

Bachelor of Biotechnology. Bachelors can then continue their studies at the postgraduate or

masters level. There are five postgraduate and masters studies offered at the Faculty of Food

Technology and Biotechnology which last for two years: Food Engineering, Food Safety

Management, Nutrition, Molecular Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering. After

graduation students obtain their occupational masters degrees.

8/11/2019 Pbf_prijevod a Film Final

2/2

In the education of our future bachelors and masters a special attention is paid to their

practical work. Through laboratory practice, students first acquire the basic skills andcompetences in chemistry, physics, mathematics and biology, followed by a more

sophisticated specialist training in molecular biology, biochemistry, genetics andmicrobiology. You cannot be a well-trained expert without a solid basic knowledge, and so

everything begins with molecules, cells and fundamental chemical reactions.Through engineering modules, our students are trained how to apply their acquired theoretical

knowledge to practical work. At this stage the most recent methods of food preparation and

manipulation, fermentation processes and other research in food engineering and bioprocess

engineering are explained to our students and practiced. And it is the witnessing of the direct

application of the acquired knowledge in practice that gives the study courses offered at the

Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology their special value.

Still, we must not forget that every product needs to be examined and checked for its quality

and safety. That is why there is a series of methods our students have to become familiar with

in the analytical laboratories at the Faculty.

In various laboratories for food chemistry and quality control of food products basic food

ingredients and other micro and macro nutrients are examined. The Laboratory for SensoryAnalysis designed according to the ISO standard 8589:1988, has not only been set up forstudents practical work, but also for educating future sensory analysts in the food industry.

Lecture halls and laboratories are not all the Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology

has to offer. There is also a modern well-equipped Faculty Council Chamber which is the seat

of the Facultys Council and where important issues are constantly discussed on how to

upgrade and improve lecturing and the scientific activities of the Faculty. This is also the

place where our students present their final, graduation work, their masters and doctoral

theses, crowning the end of their successful studies.

At the Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology there is also the faculty library

equipped with a large number of occupational and scientific books, students textbooks,

scientific journals, and magazines, a computer classroom and, last but not least, there is a

large gymnasium which offers, both, students and the faculty staff, a space for sports and

recreational activities.

We will finish our story about the Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology with what

is the ultimate goal of every student, and that is, of course, the graduation ceremony.But fortunately every ending is also a new beginning, so, our brand new bachelors and

masters emerging from the Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology will spread acrossthe country and beyond taking over the responsibility for the further development of the

Croatian industry. Some of them, perhaps the most curious ones, will continue their educationat this Faculty by enrolling in one of the four master studies offered at the Faculty of Food

Technology and Biotechnology, and, a few years later, becoming doctors of science and,

armed with their PhD degrees, becoming bearers of the scientific development in the Republic

of Croatia. And all of them will always have one thing in common: their strong ties with the

Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology, the Faculty they have graduated from and

which they will always be glad to return to.