engleski

Reforming Croatian Higher Education Toward "Europe of Knowledge"

In the European culture, the universities were formed as autonomous institutions, to which the state recognized its autonomy in organizational (programmatic) and economic sense. At the Prague Summit Conference held in May 2001, the ministers and rectors of the European universities conformed to the principles of the Bologna Declaration (1999) and pointed out directions of further development. Considering the fact that the Republic of Croatia aims to create closer links with the European Union, present Draft of the Bill on Institutions of Higher Education foresees such standards of quality of studying which are compatible with the Bologna Declaration. Despite the ongoing debates in Croatia, the general consensus has been moving toward establishing some form of international standards for higher education. Proponents of international standards implementation have raised several arguments supporting the need for developing such an explicit (inter)national standard. These higher education’s experts argue that formulating national standards would encourage the Universities and other institutions of higher education in Croatia to advance their own standards. On the other hand, some educators believe standards without resources and strategies would be of no help to higher institutions system. Policymakers, evaluators and practioners may have varied different answers to fundamental questions about the social effectiveness of standardization. However, in viewing the actual educational situation in the region, we can see that there still remains a great deal more that needs to be accomplished. Some of the present obstacles should be resolved by the transformations of overall social responsibility at national level.

higher education; standards in education; regulation; Croatia

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