WENR

Bologna Country Update: Croatia

Legal Framework

Croatia currently has five universities (a sixth is under construction), seven polytechnics, six independent higher schools of vocational training, one teacher training college and 11 private higher schools of vocational training. The Law on Higher Education of 1993 was designed to make universities more efficient and autonomous, and it also provided for the separation of the university sector from vocational education through the creation of colleges and polytechnics. However, the ministry resisted the changes mandated by the law and micromanaged every faculty separately, weakening the concept of institutional autonomy.

Legislative changes in 1996 further weakened the ability of the universities to manage themselves. To promote integration into the European higher education system, the academic community enhanced its contacts with international advisory bodies, whose experts visited Croatia in 2000. It was again recommended that university autonomy and management be strengthened.

The Act on Scientific Activity and Higher Education, adopted in July,
“introduces to Croatia a legal obligation to observe European standards for science and higher education. The application of this act introduces the Bologna Process as a method of organizing studies.” The law stipulates organizational integration of the university and requires full legal integration of individual faculties by the end of 2007. Provisions of the act relating to the European Higher Education Area are discussed below.

1. Easily Readable and Comparable Degrees

2. Degree Structure

Stage I: University programs at the undergraduate level require four years of full-time study (some disciplines five-to-six years) leading to the award of Diploma.

Stage II: Students who successfully complete the first stage of higher education are eligible to study for a Magistar (master’s degree) in either arts of sciences subjects. Students must defend a master’s thesis.

Stage III: The Doktor (Doctor of Science) is the final postgraduate degree and is concluded with the defense of a dissertation.

      1. The curricula and their relation to second-tier studies.
      2. The qualifications that will be gained by graduates.
      3. The flexibility of duration of the first and second cycle (3+2 or 4+1).
      4. The relation between academic and technical higher education.

3. Credit Transfer

4. Mobility

5. Quality Assurance

6. Promotion of European Dimensions in Higher Education


References