Croatian universities are not among the top 500 in the world.
Minister of Science and Education Blaženka Divjak visited on Monday the Northern University, where a session of the Rectors Council was held, reports N1 on August 28, 2017.
“We can certainly be proud with our universities, but another issue is whether they can be better, whether we can provide better conditions for our scientists so they can participate in international projects, whether we can draft a legal framework to reward those who are the best,” said Divjak, asked to comment on the international reputation of Croatian universities.
According to this year’s Shanghai List, the University of Zagreb is not ranked among the top 500 global universities. This is the most well-known ranking of world universities, which has been published since 2003.
She said it was a good idea to have a meeting of the Rectors Council at the Northern University in order to promote it, since it is the youngest university Croatia, founded in 2015. “If the institution has been established, and the students are here, then we will work to ensure they have the best working conditions possible,” Divjak said.
It is important that the Rectors Council discusses issues such as mutual cooperation, staff policies and how universities and the Ministries operate and assume their responsibility, the Minister said. “We should certainly lobby for more money from the state budget. Also, the investments should come from the economy in general and not exclusively from the state budget. We have to view this issue from all sides since for now our science is mostly based on investments which come from the budget. We are near the bottom of Europe when it comes to funding from other sources,” said Divjak.
She was asked about a school whose sports hall was not built due to a delay in the Ministry’s paperwork. “I cannot be held responsible for something which has been happening for the last three years. At this moment, the investment and the whole project is led by the county, while the Ministry has secured funds from the state budget. The paperwork should be resolved as early as possible. We need to provide a legislative framework so that similar projects are not stopped. Counties and towns are responsible for schools, and it is necessary to go a step further and talk with the counties and towns about this issue,” said the Minister.
Translated from N1.
