Original scientific paper
QUO VADlS FOI?
Nina Lipljin
; Faculty of Organization and Informatics, University of Zagreb, Varaždin, Croatia
Abstract
The Faculty of Organization and Informatics (FOI), Varaždin, Croatia, was founded on 18 December 1974, and this paper is devoted to its 30th anniversary. The goal of the paper is to get responses on two questions: 'Are the conditions which Croatian faculties work in the same as the conditions in other countries?' and 'While working in the same conditions as the other faculties does FOI achieve the same results? ' The used method was a method of the comparison of statistical data. For the purposes of the said research the following two research tasks have been established: (1) to find if there are any differences of work in conditions between the Croatian faculties and the faculties in other countries, and (2) to compare the results achieved by FOI and those achieved by other faculties in Croatia, and find if they are similar. To get response on the posed question, a selection has been made of certain entities and statistical indicators for the academic year 2001 - 2002. Besides Croatian entities (University of Zagreb, Faculty of Economics, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, and FOI), seven countries were chose to be compared to Croatia: Austria, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Slovenia, United Kingdom and USA. Both the first and the second research answer were negative: (1) the conditions, which Croatian faculties work in, are not the same as the conditions in other countries (in ratios to population, in Croatia there are on average less students, teachers and graduates than in the studied countries; although allocations for the GDP are not considerably lower than in other countries, Croatia holds the last position on the scale of allocations for Tertiary Education; in relation to other countries, except for Slovenia and Hungary, Croatian teachers are least paid), and (2) while working in the same conditions as the other faculties - the FOI results are better than expected (generally, considering the achieved results and the resulting quality, the FOI holds the second position, just behind the FER; the FOI is proportional, i.e. there is a balance between the enrolled students and the graduates on one hand, and the Masters and the Doctors on the other). The analysis presented somewhat poorer results in the 'Teaching Staff" section: on FOI, there is a shortage of Associated Professors, Assistants and Scientific Novices, and a surplus of Assistant Professors and Lecturers, which may point to problems that could reflect on scientific production. It could generally be said that FOI developed quite well during the 30 years of its existence, and has become a Faculty which, despite the ever-present problems such as low wages and blockage of employing the necessary number of experts, can stand side by side with many others within Croatia and abroad.
Keywords
tertiary education; conditions; comparisons; quality; Croatia; FOI
Hrčak ID:
78311
URI
Publication date:
15.12.2004.
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