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Governance of Higher Education Institutions in Croatia: Response to the New External Demands

Higher education policy in Croatia is going through the serious changes. In ongoing public discussions concerning the implementation of the new law on higher education, certain concepts are planned to be introduced under the new policy with some of them never being experienced in Croatia by now. Government's stepping back from the direct control of the higher education system, introducing market behaviour of the higher education institutions and searching for the alternative financial sources, developing certain quality assurance instruments and funding based on the appraisal results are some of them. Although those instruments are not new in the great majority of the higher education systems world-wide (Clark, 1997 ; Currie, 1998 ; Dill, 1997 ; etc.), we can argue that the implementation of those changes is not an easy task for the Croatian higher education system. Having in mind that different countries have widely different starting points and tradition, and that trends go in somewhat different directions in different countries, it is important to understand those starting points (Goedegebuure and van Vught, 1994 ; Kogan, 1998 ; Neave and van Vught, 1994). Several national, institutional, structural and contextual preconditions should be taken into account in understanding particular system. According to the insights from the recent organisational theories as well as to the recent research outcomes in the field of the higher education policy, it can be assumed that certain changes in the governance structures of the higher education institutions should be expected in order to implement such a policy (Maassen and van Vught, 1996 ; Santos et all, 1998 ; Sporn, 1999). In this work, governance refers to the composition and representation of the different individuals and groups in decision-making processes as well as the mode of execution and implementation of decisions. In most countries, shift from the traditional collegial form of governing higher education institutions towards more managerial mode is the most obvious response to the changing external demands to higher education (Middlehurst and Elton, 1992 ; Clark, 1998). The main aims of this work are: 1) to provide the theoretical background needed for understanding dynamics and developments in higher education policy, with the special emphasise on identifying factors which have influences on creating an adequate conception of governance ; 2) to suggest the possible directions of the developing and adapting adequate conceptions of governance towards the better implementation of the new higher education policy. Following propositions are to be considered on the basis of the survey of the University of Rijeka: a) when government is stepping back from the direct control of the higher education, greater autonomy and self-regulation of higher education institutions is expected ; b) as a respond on turbulent changes in external environment and market behaviour, traditional collegial governance of higher education institutions is expected to be replaced by more managerial approach ; c) the concept of "learning organisation" as a self- regulating organisation with strong leaders and engaged staff members is often launched as the ideal model of governance of higher education institutions, which supports introducing the quality assurance system (Askling and Kristensen, 2000). Data collection is based on the analyses of relevant policy documents as well as on the basis of the interviews with the stratified sample of the academic staff from the University of Rijeka (N = 45). The focus of the research considers several critical points: nature of the decision-making process on the different levels of the institution ; degree of the academic staff participation in decision making processes ; academic staff opinion about the governance structure within the institution ; problems and obstacles of adequate decision-making at the institution felt by participants. The interpretation of data respects following variables: academic staff holding/not holding a leadership position ; academic degree and years of working experience in the institution. As a result of the study, existing mode of the governance structure in the University of Rijeka and discussion about its suitability to recent demands on higher education policy is highlighted. The paper offers some new directions of improving existing governance practice of higher education institutions in Croatia so they can maximise their own capacity for meeting new internal and external demands.

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