ZAGREB, 10 April 2022 - Fewer and fewer university graduates in Croatia find their first job in their field, while the number of graduated students who found work in the public sector has increased, a survey has shown.

The survey of employability of students who graduated in the academic year 2018/2019 was carried out by the Agency for Science and Higher Education, covering 16% of students who completed their studies in Croatia in 2019.

Presenting the findings earlier this week, Matko Glunčić said that 94% of the respondents remained in Croatia, while the rest had moved abroad.

The largest number of respondents, about 45%, said they believed the cause of their current unemployment was the insufficient supply of jobs in their field.

After graduation, about 42% found work in the public sector, an increase of more than 4% compared with the 2017 survey. Nearly 64% found a job in their field, compared with 78% in 2017.

The largest number of those surveyed (32%) got a job after contacting the employer, over 18% found work through the national employment bureau (HZZ), and nearly as many found a job through their family connections, friends or acquaintances. By comparison, in 2017 most respondents had found their first job with the help of the HZZ.

Slightly fewer than 40% of respondents earned between HRK 5,000 and 7,000 a month, 25% made between HRK 3,500 and 5,000, 11% earned below HRK 3,500 and slightly fewer than 6% made over HRK 10,000 a month.

The largest number of respondents graduated with an average grade of A.

Over 33% of respondents graduated in social sciences, 22% in biomedicine, 22% in health care and nearly 22% in engineering.

(€1 = HRK 7.5)

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ZAGREB, 14 Dec 2021 - The Agency for Science and Higher Education on Tuesday held a closing conference for a project aimed at improving the quality of higher education, describing the project as an important step in developing the Croatian higher education system.

The value of the project, launched in 2016, was HRK 20 million, of which 85 percent was provided by the European Social Fund.

Project manager Ivan Bišćan said that 54 procedures for the re-accreditation of higher education institutions and 114 procedures for the re-accreditation of postgraduate university programs had been carried out in the four years. 

The Agency has also held over 100 workshops, seminars, and conferences for representatives of higher education institutions and students, which were attended by over 2,000 staff from higher education institutions.

Six surveys have been carried out covering the employability of graduates, student experience, aspirations of secondary school students to continue education, needs for information about higher education, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on classes, students, and teachers.

The Agency's director, Jasmina Havranek, expressed satisfaction with what has been done, saying that the project helped develop new and improve existing procedures for the external evaluation of Croatian higher education institutions and programs, improved the programs of study, and increased the competence of teachers.

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