Higher agricultural school was founded on 5 October 1960 in Šabac, when the decision by former NOS Šabac and the order number 01-10210 were issued . Its mission was to create highly educated professionals in order to meet the needs of primary agricultural production in state, public and private agricultural estates. In those days, the school had two departments: Crop farming and Livestock farming. Namely, the structure and nature of education in the school reflected the production needs and opportunities in the area of Podrinje and Posavina. In 1965, Livestock Farming Department was renamed into Beef and Swine Production Department. At the beginning of the life of the school, the curriculum was created following the model of the curricula of the Faculty of Agriculture, Univeristy of Belgrade, which, at that time, offered graded education – there was a two-year degree in addition to the full, four-year bachelor degree.
In 1966, after the counselling and consultations with agricultural organizations, collective farm associations and the Chamber of Commerce, the innovations of teaching plans and study programmes ensued. By the Decision of the School Council, in the second half of 1966, Crop Farming Department changed its name into the Department for Crop Farming and Mechanization of Agricultural Production. Further modernization of plans and programmes was implemented in accordance with the contemporary trends in agricultural production.
Within the process of rationalization of the network of higher and high education institutions in Serbia, a significant Counselling was held in 1984. The discussions included the assessment of the School’s role in educating professionals in the field of agriculture and the predictions for the School’s future. The representatives of economy, primarily agriculture, gave positive assessment and strong support to the school’s further work and development.
During the country’s transition period, the need for new types of professionals emerged. The Ministry of Education and Sport of the Republic of Serbia approved the introduction of two new study programmes in the School on 5 June 2003: Plant protection and Agromanagement. These programmes have kept their popularity among prospective students over the years, which confirmed the necessity of their introduction in the first place.
In accordance with the law amendments, our school promptly responded to new challenges in education, so on 30 April 2007, the Commission for Accreditation and Quality Assurance of the Republic of Serbia issued the Decision by which the Higher agricultural school in Šabac IS ACCREDITED as Higher agricultural school of vocational studies in Šabac with the three-year-duration degree.
The school continued to follow the needs of the market and the interests of the prospective students. As a result, new study programmes were introduced: Fruit Farming and Viniculture in 2009/2010, and specialist vocational study degree in 2010/2011 comprising two study programmes:
- Plant production and
- Engineering management in agriculture.
Recognizing the significance of the environmental protection and the need to educate professionals in this field, another study programme was started in 2012/2013 – Environment protection. The latest study programme in the school is Tourism, which was introduced in 2016/2017.
The Commission for Accreditation and Quality Assurance renewed the accreditation of Higher agricultural school of vocational studies with all its study programmes on 27 April 2012.
The School celebrated its significant 59th anniversary in 2010. Over last six decades, more than 4000 students earned a degree in the School, many of whom later went on to postgraduate studies and acquired the highest scientific degrees. Also, many of our former students are respected professionals and businessmen in the field of agriculture today. We are very proud of this tradition and it motivates us to constantly improve ourselves in order to educate the top-quality engineering professionals trained to apply modern technologies in agriculture. In addition to our regular teaching staff and with the aim to constantly push borders in the quality of teaching, university professors from the Faculties of agriculture in Belgrade and Novi Sad and experts from relevant Institutes and agricultural organizations have occasionally been hired over the last 59 years.