Center for Education, Training and Consulting in Higher Education (CEO) is a policy and action oriented non-profit, non-governmental organization. It was founded by a group of young researchers in order to provide independent, evidence-based policy advice on political and social issues arising from EU-integration in the field of higher education. CEO aims to offer expert knowledge and international experience in development of higher education instituitions, higher education policy, implementation of Bologna Process, Lisbon Agenda, European standards in higher education and managing the mobility programmes, EU and other development and cooperation funds.

The focus of the organization is on a comprehensive approach to policy reform in the fields of education:

• Higher education, research development
• The Bologna process and student rights
• Vocational education and training (VET) and the Copenhagen process; Lifelong learning (LLL)
• EU-funded projects in the field of education

Why CEO? – Our Background

In the past decades higher education and science landscape went through rapid and drastic changes. Higher education went through a massification where more and more students were able to access the higher education system, and at the same time the student body diversified. Globalisation, as in any other segment of public policy, effected higher education and science as well. International cooperation, mobility of students, teachers and exchange of knowledge across borders became crucial for the development of higher education institutions across the world.

However, the structure, governance, management, as well as the funding of the higher education insititutions, and higher education systems as a whole, changed very little. Science was in the same position.

At the same time goverments recognised the influence of higher education on the development of economy, the entwining links between the development of science and economy, and the need for increasing number of highly educated, flexible workforce which needed new skills within the changing, globalised economy.

In the late 90’s European governments recognised a need for change of national policies towards higher education, and even more recognised a need for coordination and development of joint policies towards the higher education systems and higher education institutions in Europe to enable them to face the changes. Therefore, European wide Bologna Process aiming to create European Higher Education Area started. The European Union adopted the Lisbon Agenda in order to strengthen employment, economic reform and social cohesion as the part of a knowledge-based economy. Higher education and science innovation were recognized as key factors in reaching the aims set by the EU governments.

Higher Education and Science in Croatia

In the ‘90s Croatian higher education, due to the situation within the state and the region, went through a period where the institutions of higher education were drastically underfunded, the links between the European and world higher education community were broken, brain drain occurred, development of science and higher education almost stopped, corruption entered the higher education as well as the other parts of society. The development of the legislation and higher education policy  concerning higher education was unadequate in comparison to other European states’ legislation and policy.

The consequences of the ‘90s can still be felt at the higher education institutions and in the higher education system as a whole. Although Croatia changed its legislation framework in 2003, which triggered the implementation of Bologna Process and started the new higher education programmes, so called “Bologna programmes”, Croatia still laggs behind Western Europe in a number of indicators.

The most disturbing is the lack of knowledge and understanding of the European higher education policy, Bologna process, lack of expertise in managing and developing the higher education institutions in a way that will enable them to answer the challenges of the changing social and economic needs in the globalised arena.

The same problem is found in the field of science where we can see a lack of knowledge about the ERA (European Research Area), large amount of very small scientific projects, lack of understanding for networking and sharing the results and a very low level of partnership between science and economy.

The other problem lies in the fact that the most of the published scientific papers are in Croatian language (not cited in any relevant database) and that more than 50% of finances for projetcs are spent on paychecks. There is also a lack of monitoring and evaluation of scientific projects, which hampers the development of proper science strategy and further investments in science.