engleski

Knowledge management at Croatian polytechnics – Assessment of the knowledge transfer process

The primary task of any higher education system is producing competent, well-educated graduates, who are essential for social and economic development, as well as raising successive generations of scientists who will enhance the mankind's range of insights through their work. Since knowledge is at the focus of interest at higher education institutions, it can be safely concluded that they have to be oriented towards knowledge management by their very nature. The basic aim of this paper is to establish how Croatian polytechnic students assess the knowledge and competencies acquired during their studies. The paper therefore puts special emphasis on the assessment of knowledge transfer process, although the questionnaire also covered some general questions regarding the functioning of polytechnics. Since it is essential for higher education institutions to be recognizable, competitive and adaptable to the labour market needs, we tried to find out how far the Croatian polytechnics have fulfilled students' expectations, i.e. how efficiently they perform their functions. The research included students at six polytechnics. The most important role in the paper is given to the cluster analysis. The results indicate that students are not sufficiently satisfied with the acquired knowledge and skills, conditions for studying and generally with the role of polytechnics. The conclusions can certainly be of use in formulating future development strategies for the Croatian higher education.

knowledge management ; knowledge transfer ; polytechnic efficiency ; student satisfaction ; higher education development strategy ; cluster analysis

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