We had the honor and pleasure to talk about the activities of the Belgrade Business School with professor Đuro Đurović, PhD, Director of the Belgrade Business School.

1. Professor Đurović, where were you born, where did you grow up and where did you go to school?

I was born in Kovren, in 1955, on the border of Montenegro and B&H, between the municipalities of Pljevlja and Bijelo Polje, where I completed school as a student pedestrian. I graduated from Gymnasium in Bijelo Polje and then got enrolled in the Faculty of Law in then Titograd (Podgorica). After successful completion of the first year of study, I started my second year at the Faculty of Law in Belgrade, from which I graduated. I have received my Master degree on the topic “Fiduciary transfer of ownership rights”, and I have defended my PhD dissertation at the European University in Belgrade. I have passed the bar exam in Belgrade.

I am very proud of every place I studied at, particularly of the Gymnasium in Bijelo Polje, which produced one of the rectors of Belgrade University.

2. What path had your career taken before you became Head of the Belgrade Business School?

During my studies, I received scholarship from the Wool Plant of Bijelo Polje. After I had graduated from the faculty, I returned to my hometown and started working in this textile factory as a lawyer in order to repay the scholarship that I received during my graduate studies. I soon realized that the job in the legal and human resources departments of this enterprise did not meet my expectations and fulfill my ambitions. Actually, I wanted to return to Belgrade and build my career there.

However, life took me to another direction. Actually, recommended by my friend, unfortunately now deceased Zoran Žižić, I applied for and was elected a judge of the Basic Court in Bar, where I stayed for about ten years. What I can tell you is that it is an outstanding and significant city in all aspects and, in my personal opinion, I have learned a lot there.

Having in mind that in 2000 I was declared one of the best judges in Montenegro, at the proposal of the then President of SRY I was elected a judge of the Federal Court of Yugoslavia, the highest court in the country, and all parliamentary groups in the then Federal Assembly, the Chamber of Republics and Chamber of Citizens supported my election.

I am sure that every student of law wants to become a part of a supreme judicial institution one day and, as you can see, my professional dream has come true.

I have to say that I was given a serious offer to stay and work in Montenegro and had a serious conversation in this respect, since the then president of the Higher Court in Podgorica, Milan Radović, offered me to be a part of the higher judicial institution in Podgorica or President of the Court in Bar, with a serious housing solution, but I opted for Belgrade. Of course, my election for a judge of the Federal Court was facilitated by the fact that the election took place in the period when the relations concerning federal bodies between the member Republics had already been shaken, and the competition for the Federal Court was thus weaker, and the authorities in Montenegro did not interfere with my election, for which I thank them.

Namely, I do not divide people in Montenegro by political or other criteria, which also applies to everything I do in life, and I have friends in all pores of the society.

I worked at the Federal Court until its abolishment in 2006.

3. Why did you leave the position of a judge and started working as a professor of law?

When I stopped working at the Federal Court or, more precisely, when the court ceased to exist, this school announced a competition for a professor of commercial law. A friend of mine recommended me and urged me to apply; the then Director, prof. Mila Jančetović, explained to me that the accreditation process was about to start and that the school would switch to a three-year Bologna system of education; she stated that I was in the profession, which was a significant recommendation, i.e. my CV.

Then I realized that it was a new professional challenge for me; a change which felt good. I was selected in the competition for a lecturer, and after I acquired a PhD degree I was appointed a full professor.

I have been here for nine years already. I teach commercial and criminal law.

4. In December 2013, you were appointed Director of the Belgrade Business School, also by a unanimous decision of the Student Parliament. What does this mean to you?

Prior to my appointment as Director of the School, I was a member of the School Council, comprising representatives appointed by the Government of the Republic of Serbia, representatives of students, professors and employees of the institution. When the competition for the director was announced, three other candidates applied besides me. We submitted our applications and a program of school activities for a three-year mandate period; the Student Parliament reviewed our programs and, based on the assessment of the overall attitude of candidates in relation to them, the Student Parliament unanimously supported my appointment as Director of the School.

This support of students and my election by secret ballot in the first round are the best indicators, both for me personally and for all the others, that I have done my job well so far and that I am on a good path to improve and enhance the system of work and education at the Belgrade Business School, which is established on a sound basis in organizational, financial and in terms of personnel.

Of course, here I would particularly like to emphasize that officials in high government positions and, if you want, the most important ones, have supported the autonomy of the higher education institution, for which the students, professors, employees and me are particularly grateful to them.

5. What did you first change when you took the new position in March this year? What other changes do you intend to implement in the upcoming three years? How long is your mandate?

When I was only a candidate for the director, I said that if I was appointed none of the management members, assistants and advisors would keep their positions, and this was implemented. I have formed a new management team to govern the school in the upcoming period, which mostly comprises young and truly educated people.

It seems to me that the previous school management comprised mainly professors who were close to their retirement and were not sufficiently creative and innovative, because they were satisfied with the achieved and performed their tasks in the school management in a somehow routine manner, which certainly did not produce satisfactory results. I think that the previous director mainly worked alone.

In the upcoming three years, I will endeavour to implement certain reforms that will bring a better quality of education and development of the school. I want to maintain quality curricula, quality professors, work discipline.

There will be no revolutionary changes, we will only become a bit more serious in our work and give a chance to young teachers who have better ideas and are eager to prove themselves.

We have already submitted to competent authorities an application for accreditation of two new study programs, for Managers of Tourism and Public Administration. We fully fulfill the conditions and hope for a positive outcome.

We also plan to turn the Belgrade Business School into the Belgrade Academy for Business Studies in the upcoming period, and I am free to say that we will fulfill the conditions for such an organizational form of business within a short period of time.

6. What occupational profiles do you educate at the Belgrade Business School? Will those young people find their place in the labor market of Serbia upon graduation?

In addition to the five existing study programs, finance, banking, accounting, marketing and trade, management, business IT, and taxes and customs duties, and besides these additional two programs that I have already mentioned, we also have accredited and specialist studies, and through KASSA we have also proposed a change of the law so that we could apply for the Master study accreditation.

This school currently employs 117 teachers, most of whom have a PhD degree, while others have Master and other degrees.

The professionals coming out of our school are extraordinarily well educated and the Serbian labor market is open for them.

7. Are diplomas of this school recognized abroad and what are the chances of your graduates to find a job abroad?

Our diplomas are recognized all over the world. They are validated without any difficulties. Our students are very well ranked in Serbia and the region, as well as in other labor markets. They have both theoretical and practical knowledge in their fields of study, which is a precondition for finding a good job wherever they go in the world.

I claim that we have the best and most capable students in the Republic of Serbia, which they have proved in a number of places.

8.The Belgrade Business School has also established cooperation with international higher education institutions, primarily with the state university in Stuttgart. What is the significance of the dual diploma system for students?

The Belgrade Business School has established very good international cooperation with the State University in Stuttgart, which is distinctive because of the fact that each student of theirs has practice exactly where they will be employed later on. The Germans do not educate professionals who will end up in the unemployment office, but they intentionally educate experts who are needed in the labor market.

We want to introduce such practice in our school, i.e. in Serbia, and we are on a good path to do that.

We have also established international cooperation with certain institutions in Vienna, Rome, Canada and Russia, since we want to introduce an exchange of students on the basis of such cooperation, as well as performance of professional practice for our students abroad.

Dual education implies that a student is educated through both theory and practice, which is a mandatory part of the study program at our school.

9. In what way do you ensure practical work (practice) for the attendants of your school during their studies?

Professional student practice is a part of the mandatory study program in the sixth semester of applied studies at our school. Through the practice students show how well they have mastered the curriculum and try to position themselves in the labor market. The Belgrade Business School has more than 300 contracts concluded with various companies, commercial and non-commercial organizations, where our students have their practice. The companies in which the students have undergone practice frequently keep the best of them, first as trainees, and later on as employees.

The students have 320 hours of mandatory practice.

10. Since the founder of the Belgrade Business School is the Republic of Serbia, do you have any students financed from the budget? What is an average amount of money that a self-financing student must pay for a year of study?

All the three years of study at our school cost as much as one year of study at private faculties. The tuition fee at the Belgrade Business School is fully adjusted to the current economic situation in the country and affordable for most families, and we have not changed it for a few years already.

We also have students financed from the budget, in each year of study. A certain number of students acquire the right to free education, exclusively due to the results they have achieved in the secondary school and the passed entrance exam on enrollment. There is also a possibility that a student is moved to the group financed from the budget if he/she achieves outstanding results in the first year of study.

11. The Belgrade Business School has existed for almost six decades now, and it has received a lot of prestigious awards for the results achieved. Which of those awards would you particularly underline, and what do they mean to you and to the institution you are heading?

A particularly significant award for all of us is the one given to the school by the European Educational Research Association, with its headquarters in Lausanne. We have received the award for the good organization of professional practice. It is a prestigious award that can be received only through the investment of big efforts in the maintenance of continuity of high quality lectures, as I have already said in relation to practice.

On June 1 this year in Brussels, at the awards ceremony, I thanked all the experts who had monitored the activities of our school for a longer period of time, and who recognized the quality of our professional practice in the presence of many experts, business people and diplomats from all over the world.

As for the regional Edu-Business Partner 2014 Award, delivered by Mass Media International, I underline that last year this award was given to the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Belgrade, as a prestigious, unmatched educational institution in the region and beyond, which makes this award even more significant for us.

The received awards confirm that we do our job well and, at the same time, they are a stimulus for further development and improvement.

Awards are very important to us, they are cultural heritage that will remain in this institution and speak of activities of the school in the time in which we are now talking.

12. These days, forgery of diplomas is a common topic in public discussions. To what extent can these events impair the reputation of educational institutions and in what way does your school manage to maintain its good reputation?

Forgery is one issue here, and those who have forged a document have committed a criminal offense, have falsely represented themselves, and must be punished for that. Another issue is that there are people who formally and legally have all the needed documentation proving that they have completed some schools, but the fact is that their knowledge, particularly when it comes to those from private faculties, does not match what is written in their diplomas.

You will agree that having a diploma and having knowledge is not the same; these two things seem not to match these days.

Our school announces competitions for appointment of certain professors of certain subjects, and we will give preference to candidates with diplomas granted by state faculties, especially in the part of completion of basic studies; however, this will not exclude those having diplomas of private faculties, but we will check their knowledge, capabilities and skills with special attention.

These days we can see in media that the state authorities needed 25 years to discover a case of a fake rector, i.e. PhD. That man was expelled from our school 25 years ago since, in the words of the then director, he behaved immorally and his conduct was unworthy of the professorial profession, both in relation to students and the school itself.

The time has proven that the then director of the Belgrade Business School was right.

The Belgrade Business School has always looked far ahead of time in its mission and vision.

13. Do you monitor professional careers of your bachelors and in what manner? Is there a sector within the school that assists graduate students to apply for jobs or to develop their careers in general?

We intend to establish an office that will monitor the careers of our students upon their completion of studies and assist them in further development in all possible ways, and to shape the activities of such an office through international cooperation, particularly due to the fact that our graduate students frequently ask their professors for assistance, particularly when at their new job they are assigned a task which they are not sure they can perform on their own.

We are always there for them, to give advice and assist, since we have an already traditional phrase - what is a mother to her child that is the Belgrade Business School to its students.

14. How do you encourage your students to become independent at their jobs and to become entrepreneurs?

Almost every Monday, professors of Management of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises visit some small and medium-sized firms together with their students, family companies all over Serbia, in order to show them in what way these firms operate, how they are organized and what they do.

A really large number of our graduates are now owners of small or medium-sized successful enterprises, which enable them to live very well, or they are employed with such companies.

15. What do you advise your students who are at the beginning of their professional career? What values should they appreciate and what situations should they avoid in order to achieve desired success?

At the very beginning, I advise them to study. I tell them that they should always be energetic and never stop working. It is also important for them to perform every task they undertake in the best possible manner, since this is the only way to succeed. I tell them to make right decisions... They do not need a driver's license if they do not know how to drive.

16. How do you spend your free time?

I have almost no free time. I have a wife and two sons. The older one is a Master of Economics and has two more exams to pass to graduate from the state Law School, while my younger son is a Bachelor of Laws, from the state Law School as well, and will continue his postgraduate studies at Westminster in London. Both of them speak foreign languages, and I like spending most of my free time with them.

Occasionally, I like to play a game of chess, since I think I am the best chess player among lawyers and the best lawyer among lawyers. Of course, I watch football matches on TV and I never miss the TV show “Utisak nedelje”.

17. How do you overcome everyday stress?

Having in mind that I used to be a judge, which is one of the jobs implying the highest amount of stress (it is not easy to dispense justice), I have learned over time to deal with such difficult situations, the work under great pressure and under both institutional and public scrutiny; in my opinion, when you work well and in good faith, stress is of secondary importance in both work and life.

I guess genes also have something to do with it. My ancestors fought in wars, were captured and got killed in those wars - in battles of Kolubara, Mojkovac, Sutjeska and in many other places. To me, these are the real sacrifices. In comparison with them, the sacrifice called stress, which I make today, is really minor.

And the origin is binding, isn't it?

18. If you could, what would you change in your former career?

I probably wouldn’t be a senior undergraduate with only one exam left for so long; however, as Matija Bećković wrote somewhere: “It was the way it had to be, because it could not have been otherwise”.

What is important is that I do not regret anything…