 | ||
The Lyceum of the Principality of Serbia was the first higher education school in Serbia in which education was taught in Serbian. It was founded in 1838 on the initiative of Prince Miloš Obrenović II in Kragujevac. When Belgrade became the Serbian capital city in 1841, the Serbian Lyceum was moved to it. In 1863 it was transformed into the Higher School.
Initially, lyceum had only philosophical and legal departments. In 1845 lyceum received the first instruments from Vuk Marinković. Departments for natural and technical sciences were founded in 1853 and included department for chemistry which is considered as nucleus of the Faculty of Chemistry at Belgrade University. Laboratory of the chemistry department was in the basement of the Princess Ljubica's Residence.
Students
There were 21 students in the first generation and 17 of them finished the studies. In the first period there were only between 20 and 30 students in each generation. Many students were not able to complete their studies and left because of financial or health problems. After the graduation some of them received government's scholarship to continue their education abroad. They were obliged to work-off received scholarship by working for the government afterwards.
The first student organisation in Serbia, Association of Serbian Youth (Serbian Cyrillic: Дружина младежи српске), was established in this lyceum in 1847, but it was soon banned because of their criticism of the Defenders of the Constitution.