May 26, 2021 - With Energy Institute Hrvoje Požar (EIHP) being the lead partner, the REPLACE Project from Horizon Europe steadily continues the progress of renewable energy for the Kvarner region.

Earlier in January, TCN wrote about Croatian energy development, whose goal is to be based on clean technologies. And that it's not all empty talk, as shown by the third meeting of a local workgroup enrolled in the REPLACE Project. As Energy Institute Hrvoje Požar (EIHP) reports on its website, the REPLACE Project has a goal of supporting European energetic, climate, environmental, economic, and social goals with the deadline until 2030 and 2050.

As part of the OBZOR 2020 (Horizon Europe) EU program for research and innovations in the 2014-2020 time frame, the REPLACE Project receives EU funding. Twelve partners from nine countries participate in the project, and EIHP is in charge of the project activities in Primorska-Goranska county. In support of European goals, the plan of REPLACE Project is to gradually switch the current ineffective and outdated heating and cooling systems with new efficient systems which rely on renewable energy.

The meeting held at the Faculty of Economics at the University of Rijeka saw Dražen Balić, Antonia Tomas Stanković, and Lea Leopoldović from EIHP hold lectures presenting results of the first period of the project, but also the plans for future activities. The accent was put on implementing campaigns and collective actions supported by the members of the local workgroup. Energetic poverty, gender aspects, and „lock-in effect“ (an economic practice, where a company makes it extremely hard for their customers to leave them, even if the customer wants to) are the obstacles the project runners are aware of and were explained in greater detail. Another thing that stood out in the presentation was the presentation „Technology of Blue Energy in Croatia“, which presented modern technologies used in heating and cooling in coastal areas, and applicable to the Primorska -Goranska county.

Key institutions in the regions such as REA Kvarner (regional energy agency), Energo Rijeka (gas and heat energy provider), representatives of the Primorska-Goranska county, OIE Hrvatska (The economic-interest association The Renewable Energy Sources of Croatia - RES), and Rijeka Consumer Centre were present at the meeting, showing that the motivation to bring energy efficiency in Primorska-Goranska County is in its full strength. Both on corporal, political, and expert levels. 

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As Novi list/Ingrid Sestan Kucic writes on the 31st of August, 2019, four years ago, an online university graduate study in business economics, in the field of entrepreneurship, was launched, and in this academic year, Rijeka's faculty of economics is going to step up its game yet again.

The Faculty of Economics in Rijeka is the first university constituent in the whole of the Republic of Croatia to launch an online undergraduate degree in business economics, which was done four years ago, and is now the first higher education institution in Croatia to start implementing its undergraduate level since the new academic year.

Accreditation for the undergraduate degree program in entrepreneurship has recently arrived, and the first enrollments are being completed as early as this autumn, for which applications are still being received until September the 10th, 2019. The first generation of students, as was announced by Helga Pavlić Skender, PhD, and Zoran Ježić, PhD, will consist of thirty students, while forty graduate students are enrolled in the online degree program this year.

Explaining that this is a dynamic way of studying that enables you to fulfill your goals through better organisation of activities and parallel career development with your studies, this Rijeka faculty's staff say that online studies are chosen by young employees or young mothers who are away from Rijeka.

Online studying allows students to follow lectures from anywhere they happen to be, it provides them with the opportunity to learn at their own pace in their own surroundings, as students go through the learning material at the speed they want, and they are given the opportunity to choose how they'd like to study. At the same time, they acquire competences in working with different technologies, as they acquire not only information about what is being learned, but also additional knowledge and skills about the use of information technologies along the way.

''Every year, we have an increasing number of students attending graduate level studies, and the report we received for undergraduate level accreditation was without a single objection. We have students from all over Croatia, and although all classes are conducted in an e-environment, the exams are taken at the faculty in controlled conditions in order to maintain a high level of quality of the studies,'' explained prof. Dr. Ježić

Dean of the Rijeka Faculty of Economics, prof. Dr. Alen Host added that this type of study significantly reduces the cost of studies, as there are no housing costs, and students only need to physically come to Rijeka for their exams.

''The study is conducted as a part-time one, and is intended for students who don't actually live in Rijeka, those who work and don't attend the afternoon classes that we organise for other part-time students. The price of the study is the same as that of the part-time study, ie, the year costs 5,500 kuna. The style of teaching is identical to part-time teaching, students have the same obligations and the same learning outcomes, and classes can be followed even on mobile phones,'' the dean said.

It is a way of studying that is practical, dynamic and in step with new technologies that guarantee the knowledge and skills needed and sought after in today's demanding business world.

Currently, 6.3 million students study online worldwide, and this is a way of studying that has an upward trend, with 5.6 percent more students opting for this type of study this year than last year.

For the purpose of conducting distance learning, the Rijeka Faculty of Economics has established a Committee for the Development of Distance Learning, equipped a studio for online lectures, as well as two halls, a lecturer's manual has been issued, and teacher education is a continuous process that is constantly being upgraded.

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