Transcript Slide 1

Progress in reform of HE funding in
Croatia
- November 2010 edition Luka Juroš
Ministry of Science, Education and Sports
Tempus ACCESS Consortium meeting
Corvinus University Budapest, Hungary, November 2010
Presentation overview
 Recent events
 Draft of new laws
 To do
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Questions asked at last ACCESS
meeting
 How to encourage the definition and follow the implementation of
strategic goals of universities, local community and society at large?
 How can the Ministry provide financial support to quality higher
education?
 How can transparency be assured in the funding of higher education,
both from public and private sources?
 Professionalization of administration
 How to assign new positions? How to predict expenses related to new positions?
How to assess needs?
 What are our sources of data? Do we know what is the real state of
affairs?
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Recent events
 In early October the Ministry published three draft laws on its web site
 Draft law on universities, higher education and research
 Public discussion opened until November 1
 Comments are still accepted
 The laws will go through full parliamentary procedure (two readings)
 Opportunity for public consultation will thus be open until the final vote in parliament
 Ministry web site: “this was the first phase of public consultation”
 Goal was to determine a draft text for Cabinet procedure
 During the Cabinet procedure all stakeholders in science and higher education will
have the opportunity to submit further comments
 Further comments will also be gathered during discussions in parliamentary
procedure
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Authors of draft laws
 The minister named the following persons to draft the new laws:
 prof. Vlatko Cvrtila (Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb)
 prof. Slavko Krajcar (Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, University of
Zagreb)
 prof. Žarko Puhovski (Faculty for Philosophy, University of Zagreb)
 dr. Tvrtko Smital (Institute Ruđer Bošković, Zagreb)
 dr. Ana Lucić-Vrdoljak (Institute for medical research and medicine of labour, Zagreb)
 Ivo Šušak (Croatian Institute for History)
 Employees of the Ministry: Mirna Slaviček, Vito Turšić, director of the Directorate for
Higher Education, dr. Hrvoje Meštrić, director of the Directorate for Research,
president of the Working Group.
 The persons were named by the minister and were not representatives
of their institutions
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Features of draft laws
 Law on universities
 Restructuring of universities
 Funding agreements / contracts – 3-year funding
 Collection and publishing of statistics and data
 Law on higher education – many changes
 Abolishment of tuition fees; introduction of enrolment fees
 Student welfare Ordinance
 New grading scheme (5 pass grades + 2 fail grades)
 Restructuring of teaching positions; introduction of teaching licence
 Restructuring of national council for higher education and research
 Reintroduction of magisterij znanosti
 Abolishment of binarity of study programmes at first cycle (binarity of institutions not
changed)
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Costs of study – in general
 Conventionally, two types of costs of study can be identified
 Costs of classes or teaching (also called tuition) – nastava
 Generally charged in form of tuition fees
 Other costs related to studies – accommodation, literature,
transportation, food, other living costs, etc.
 Generally charged directly to students
 Students can receive different kinds of support for these costs
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Costs of classes (teaching)
 Currently, the costs of classes (teaching) in Croatia are co-funded by
students through tuition fees
 Higher education institutions (around 130 of them) are completely autonomous in
setting all tuition fee issues
 The new law foresees the change in practice
 All tuition fees are to be abolished
 National-level general enrolment fees are to be introduced
 The maximum enrolment fees are to be 60% of average net monhtly
salary in Croatia in previous calendar year, for 1st and 2nd cycle
programmes
 The amount is 100% of average net monthly salay for third cycle programmes
 HEIs determine the actual amount payable
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Support for other costs today
 Currently, all full-time students in Croatia are entitled to the following:
 regulated food prices
 75% subsidy of food costs
 health insurance
 no tax on student employment (over 130 million euro annual student earnings with a
cap of around 7,000 euro annual earnings per student)
 subsidy for private accommodation
 tax relief on student parents’ income
 complete tuition fee remission at enrolment of first and second cycle programmes
 Most full-time students in Croatia have got completely or partially
subsidised local transportation costs
 Today, around 25% of full time students receive scholarships and are
accommodated in dormitories (source: EUROSTUDENT Croatia)
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Student support in new law
 New Ordinance on student welfare
 The state budget will support the costs of enrolment fees
 Planned to cover cost of enrolment fees for students who regularly complete their
obligations
 Planned to cover cost of enrolment fees for socially disadvantaged students
 Support for other costs
 Will be discussed and developed in the new ordinance
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Statistics, data collection and
analysis
 National funding for Information systems of HEIs (ISVU)
 2009 Act Quality Assurance stipulates that the Agency for Science and
Higher Education collects and analyzes national data on higher
education and research
 EU project planned to develop and implement the National information
system for science and higher education – 2012 - 2013
 New law also puts strong emphasis on data collection and analysis
 University yearbooks
 An ordinance on data collection will be passed
 Kinds of data collected, format, means of collection
 Data on teaching, studies, employees, students, enrolments, research and other data
relevant for institutional and national decision making
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Introduction of funding agreements
 Overall consensus about introduction of funding agreements
 Ministry plans several activities to support the introduction
 EU twinning project for funding agreements
 Planned to implement through 2012 and 2013
 Work with individual universities and the ministry
 National workshop on funding agreements with Germany’s Centre for
Higher Education experts (dr. Frank Ziegele)
 February 2011
 Twinning project for funding agreements
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Role of Tempus ACCESS - Ministry
perspective
 Progress with adoption of new laws affects what can be done within
Tempus ACCESS
 New laws are the prerequisite for substantial changes in student welfare
and higher education funding system in Croatia
 Expert opinion: how to interpret staff/student ratio
 Expert opinion: comments on other aspects of funding agreements
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In particular, the possible elements of funding agreements relating to access into highered
 Expert opinion: overall principles for the drafting of the new Ordinance on
student welfare (Pravilnik o studentskom standardu)
 Review of the new Ordinance on student welfare (recenzija Pravilnika o
studentskom standardu)
 Participation in the Dubrovnik conference
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Thank you!
 Web: www.mzos.hr
 E-mail: [email protected],
[email protected]
 Address: Donje Svetice 38
HR-10000 Zagreb, Croatia
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