History

The history of higher education in Zenica begins in 1959, when the Higher Technical School of Metallurgy was founded. In the course of 1959 and 1960, intensive work was done on the establishment of the faculty, and with the decision of the People's Committee of the Zenica County and the confirmation of this decision by the Executive Council of the NRBiH in 1961, the Technical College grew into the Faculty of Metallurgy in Zenica as part of the University of Sarajevo.

The next step in the development of scientific thought and the development of higher education in Zenica was the establishment of the Metallurgical Institute "Hasan Brkić" (now "Kemal Kapetanović") on October 1, 1961.

The establishment of the second Zenica faculty was waited until 1977. On March 31 of that year, by the decision of the Workers' Council of the Association of Basic Organizations of the Zenica Ironworks and the Zenica Municipality Assembly on the separation of specialist mechanical departments at the Faculty of Metallurgy in Zenica into an independent faculty, the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Zenica was established. The two aforementioned faculties were the backbone of higher education in Zenica for a number of years, and they trained a large number of professionals who were the mainstay of industry in the Zenica area and beyond. In accordance with the needs of the development of science and its application in practice, the Department of Mechanical Engineering was established in 1981 at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, which in 1989 grew into the Institute of Mechanical Engineering of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Zenica.

In the period before the aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina, departments of faculties from Sarajevo (Economics, Law...) were opened in Zenica, but these departments did not take off, so they were soon closed.

With the beginning of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a very difficult period began for higher education in Zenica, as well as for society as a whole. Basic existential conditions were threatened, and a large number of students and teaching staff actively joined the defense of the homeland. However, despite all the problems, higher education institutions in Zenica do not stop working. What's more, new departments, faculties and academies are being established. Thus, for a time, advanced departments of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Medicine from Tuzla operated in Zenica, then the department of criminology studies, etc. After the end of the war, all the aforementioned departments stopped working.

By the decision of the Presidency of the Republic of BiH, and in accordance with the very expressed need for classroom teachers, teachers in the widest area of BiH, on March 10, 1994. In Zenica, the Pedagogical Academy was founded within the University of Sarajevo. Parallel to the founding of the Pedagogical Academy, the Islamic Pedagogical Academy was founded in Zenica, and the final decision on its foundation was made by the highest body of the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina on September 30, 1993. years.

In addition to the aforementioned departments and the academy in Zenica, the departments of the Faculty of Economics and Law from Sarajevo also started working, and as the need for educated professionals in these fields grew, these departments are still operating today.

In addition to the aforementioned institutions, the public library with its reading room and its departments, whose literature from the professional collection is available to all students of Zenica's faculties, joins the community of higher education in Zenica.

The University of Zenica was formed on October 18, 2000 by the Decision of the Assembly of Zenica-Doboj Canton.