Croatian Higher Education Research Articles

Role of a Croatian National Repository Infrastructure in Promotion and Support of Research Data Management

The paper will give an overview of national infrastructure for digital repositories, Digital Academic Archives and Repositories (DABAR), and its role as technology steward in raising awareness about research data management (RDM) and promoting good practices in the Croatian A&R community. The University of Zagreb, University Computing Centre (SRCE) is providing national infrastructure DABAR suitable for storing and dissemination of different types of digital objects. Through DABAR, all Croatian higher education and research institutions can establish their digital repository. A strong collaboration between SRCEs DABAR team and institutions repository managers has proven to be important in the process of disseminating knowledge about research data management among researchers and the scientific community at large. The paper will provide information about this collaboration during the project RDA Europe 4.0 – The European plug-in to the global Research Data Alliance (RDA). The main goal of this collaboration is to raise awareness about the importance of managing and sharing research data.

A New Paradigm in Croatian Higher Education: Non – Formal Foreign Language Learning

Knowledge of legal English, with English as lingua franca of international communication has become an essential precondition for communication of legal professionals worldwide. That is the reason why law students and legal professionals in Europe, especially those working in new member states of the EU, are interested in widening their knowledge in legal English within different forms of non-formal foreign language education. In this paper, the author presents a new paradigm of foreign language teaching at Croatian universities that was introduced due to recent changes in professional communication, the intensive development of IT, and growing importance of English in international context. The objective of the paper is to present examples of good practice and innovation in teaching LSP in Croatian higher education. The challenges of professional communication in the field of law are presented and discussed in the introduction of the paper. In the main part, the types of non-formal education are presented that were developed at the Faculty of Law Osijek, Croatia as a response to requirements of the EU labour market and the professional communication between lawyers. The first non-formal type of education presented in the paper is the Lifelong Learning Programme for Lawyer Linguists, and the second one the course Legal English for Civil Servants developed within the European cross-border project CATCH, organized by Croatian and Hungarian units of local and regional self-government. In the conclusion, the author discusses the achievements of the two programmes and offers her vision of the future developments in foreign language teaching at European higher education institutions.

A New Paradigm in Croatian Higher Education: Non – Formal Foreign Language Learning

Knowledge of legal English, with English as lingua franca of international communication, has become an essential precondition for communication of legal professionals worldwide. That is the reason why law students and legal professionals in Europe, especially those working in new member states of the EU, are interested in widening their knowledge in legal English within different forms of non-formal foreign language education. In this paper, the author presents a new paradigm of foreign language teaching at Croatian universities that was introduced due to recent changes in professional communication, the intensive development of IT, and the growing importance of English in the international context. The objective of the paper is to present examples of good practice and innovation in teaching LSP in Croatian higher education. The challenges of professional communication in the field of law are presented and discussed in the introduction of the paper. In the main part, the types of nonformal education are presented that were developed at the Faculty of Law Osijek, Croatia as a response to requirements of the EU labor market and the professional communication between lawyers. The first nonformal type of education presented in the paper is the Lifelong Learning Programme for Lawyer Linguists, and the second one is the course Legal English for Civil Servants developed within the European cross-border project CATCH, organized by Croatian and Hungarian units of local and regional self-government. In the conclusion, the author discusses the achievements of the two programs and offers her vision of the future developments in foreign language teaching at European higher education institutions.

A conceptual model for e-textbook creation based on proposed characteristics

PurposeThis paper is part of an extensive research conducted as part of a doctoral thesis. The purpose of this paper is to collect and present the comprehensive list of e-textbook characteristics acquired from research in the English as a foreign language (EFL) subject area in Croatian higher education and present a useful checklist in the form of a conceptual model for e-textbook creation.Design/methodology/approachLiterature was reviewed with the aim of collecting published e-textbook characteristics which were then combined with the characteristics obtained from research data. The data were collected through four distinct online questionnaires on the Survey Monkey platform.FindingsTeaching EFL requires the use of different materials, authentic and specifically published for this purpose. The research results are used to discuss the possibility of blending all materials into one electronically published unit by considering the proposed e-textbook characteristics. The presented conceptual model for e-textbook creation can be used as a foundation for e-textbook design and evaluation in all subject fields.Originality/valueThe paper presents a list of e-textbook characteristics as an extensive list which can be applied in e-textbook design and evaluation in any subject field.

Education Challenges and Developments in Foreign Language Teaching in Croatian Law Schools Education Challenges and Development for the Future

In the modern world of global economic and political associations, the knowledge of foreign languages and communication skills represent essential factors in all professions. In this respect, knowledge of English language as lingua franca of international communication is an indispensable prerequisite for communication within the legal profession worldwide. This paper is a case-study of teaching foreign languages in Croatian Law Schools, presented on the case of the Faculty of Law, University of Osijek. In the introductory part of the paper, a short description of the status and the position of foreign language courses in the Higher Education System of the Republic of Croatia is offered. In the main part the author presents new developments in the foreign language teaching in Croatian law faculties as answers to current challenges of Croatian membership in the EU. On the example of the Faculty of Law, University of Osijek, new projects on teaching foreign languages to practicing lawyers and law students are presented, with an emphasis on the Lifelong Learning Programme for Lawyer-Linguists. This programme, as well as specific foreign language courses in Legal English, Legal German and Legal French, have been developed within the lifelong education projects for lawyers, by which young lawyers are offered an opportunity to learn and/or to improve their knowledge of the three working languages of the EU. These developments in foreign language teaching within the Croatian Higher Education System are one of the responses to current challenges of the internationalization of the modern world. DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2015.v5n1s1p87

Exploring drivers of student satisfaction and dissatisfaction: an assessment of impact-asymmetry and impact-range

The purpose of this study is to explore the key drivers of student satisfaction in a Croatian higher education (HE) setting. In particular, this study seeks to identify lecturer and course characteristics with either diminishing or increasing returns in student satisfaction. This study uses data collected during the official student satisfaction assessment at the Faculty of Economics and Business, Zagreb in the academic year 2011/2012. Overall, 23,804 fully completed questionnaires collected at the end of the winter and the summer term form the data of this study. Impact-asymmetry analysis (IAA) was used to detect and quantify nonlinear effects in the formation of student satisfaction. IAA helps to approximate the potentials of individual teaching and lecturer attributes to further enhance overall student satisfaction. Impact range and average performance of teaching and lecturer characteristics were further calculated and mapped into a matrix to detect key areas that need to be improved in future quality initiatives. This study provides detailed and interesting insight into the formation of overall student satisfaction relevant for all those concerned with quality issues in HE. The results reveal the most influential teaching and lecturer characteristics and several characteristics with diminishing and increasing returns in overall student satisfaction.

Some Recent Trends in Croatian Higher Education

Some Recent Trends in Croatian Higher Education

Leaving Early: The Determinants of Student Non-Completion in Croatian Higher Education

Hrvatsko visoko obrazovanje doživjelo je velike promjene od 1990-ih posebice u broju upisanih studenata kojih je danas 80% vise nego prije 15 godina. Slicne promjene događaju se i u europskom visokoobrazovnom sustavu. U mnogim zemljama posljedica ove ekspanzije je povecanje stope nezavrsavanja studija, s naglaskom na prvu godinu studija. Kako bi ostvarili bolji uvid u problematiku, ovaj rad ispituje teorijsku osnovicu u analizi nezavrsavanja prve godine studija te identificira glavne determinante. U radu se razvija i model nezavrsavanja studija koji je prilagođen hrvatskom visokoobrazovnom sustavu. Baza podataka koja se koristi u analizi obuhvaca 8 generacija studenata jedne velike hrvatske visokoskolske institucije. U empirijskom dijelu istražuju se ucinci varijabli kao sto su osobne karakteristike studenta i njegovih vrsnjaka (peers) na studiju, stupanj obrazovanja roditelja, karakteristike srednje skole i fakulteta, na vjerojatnost nezavrsavanja prve godine studija. Ovo istraživanje je relevantno i primjenjivo u drugim zemljama koje su suocene s neefikasnim zavrsavanjem studija.

Leaving Early: The Determinants of Student Non-Completion in Croatian Higher Education

Leaving Early: The Determinants of Student Non-Completion in Croatian Higher Education

Accountability, access, and affordability as key challenges in the reform of Croatian higher education

Higher education in Croatia has experienced many significant changes since the introduction of the Bologna process nearly a decade ago. With efforts to harmonize higher education into the European Area of Higher Education have come many challenges related to access, affordability, and accountability. The Bologna Declaration outlines a basic framework for transforming higher education in Europe and has two main goals: to achieve grater compatibility and comparability of the systems of higher education to promote grater employability of higher education graduates in the European labor market, and achievement of international competitiveness and worldwide attractiveness of the European higher education system. Although a number of students enroll in tertiary education (somewhat similar to U.S. technical college), a smaller proportion entered higher education (somewhat similar to U.S. four-year baccalaureate college), but the number continues to increase each year. Historically, government funds supported all or nearly all of the higher education student’ s tuition ; however, as more students choose to enroll, tuitions are rising and generally students are being required to fund a portion of their costs. Although accountability in Croatian higher education is not currently addressed directly, it is being addressed indirectly through related concepts such as competence-based curriculum, social responsibility, and quality assurance. In addition, efforts such as the Tuning Project are especially important for accountability. Indeed there are challenges, but also bright future ahead for higher education in Croatia.

Market orientation in managing relationships with multiple constituencies of Croatian higher education

In this paper, market orientation in Croatian higher education (HE) is discussed within the context of stakeholder-oriented management. Drawing on existing studies, the ‘classical’ empirical model, describing the market orientation of generic nonprofit organisations, has been adapted to the contingencies of the Croatian HE sector. Empirical testing of the model, based on primary data drawn from the majority of public institutions of higher learning in the country, reveals inadequate market orientation toward the relevant stakeholders. Although social market orientation currently does not exist in Croatian HE institutions, the empirical results confirm that it might be possible to initiate a ‘virtuous circle’, in which relevant market orientation and stakeholder management practices, directed toward one or other of the stakeholders, simultaneously enhance orientation toward the other stakeholders. Unfortunately, the current situation in HE is not satisfactory, which could hinder the implementation of development of knowledge society in Croatia.

Education for Cataloguing and Classification at the Department of Information Sciences in Osijek, Croatia

ABSTRACT In 2005, Croatian higher education curricula underwent a significant reform in order to comply with the requirements of the Bologna Process. This paper examines the ways this reform affected cataloguing instruction at the Department of Library and Information Sciences at the Faculty of Philosophy in Osijek, Croatia.

Toward a successful taxonomy for Croatian academic libraries

PurposeThis paper seeks to investigate the degree to which the unfavourable state of the Croatian higher education system (the lack of vision, goals and objectives, insufficient budgeting and no quality control system) reflects on the organization, development and continuous dedication to quality of academic libraries in Croatia.Design/methodology/approachThe situation is illustrated by a study conducted among academic libraries of the University Josip Juraj Strossmayer in Osijek in 2003. A questionnaire for librarians and one for chief librarians was used and data were processed by software package StatSoft, Statistica 6.0. Next to the descriptive statistics, Mann‐Whitney test, Pearson Chi‐Square, Maximum Likelihood and Fisher exact Chi‐Square test were used. Annual reports were also used.FindingsThis research revealed that the academic libraries of Osijek University are unprepared for performance measurement. It was clear that they are unfamiliar with many elements of evaluation. Librarians are usually excluded from decision making regarding library operations, which results in their low motivation. However, the greatest dissatisfaction of academic librarians of Osijek University comes from their low status. Furthermore, librarians rarely get support from their colleges for their professional education (no travel money, no paid leave, etc.)Research limitations/implicationsOsijek University is a relatively small university. It consists of nine colleges, one institute and one university library. The size of the target sample influenced the choice of research instruments – questionnaire, interviews with chief librarians and analysis of library annual reports.Originality/valueThis was the first such study in Croatia and its main goal was to test theoretical approaches and research methodology, which could be later applied for a study on a nation‐wide level.

Creating a Quality Assurance System for Croatian Higher Education

This article presents an action plan for establishing a system of quality assurance for Croatian higher education. The action plan is forward‐looking rather than retrospective and draws on experiences with adopting continuous improvement practices in Australia, Turkey, and the United States. Numerous authors have explored the challenges facing Croatian higher education, so we do not duplicate that task. We propose to adopt a continuous improvement system which will help modernize the system of education in Croatia.