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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