Trg Nikole Zrinskog 9
10000 Zagreb
Croatia
- Democracy and community development
- Others
- Youth and education
Vision
The Institute for the Development of Education advocates a system of higher education that ensures equal educational opportunities, adheres to the principle of quality assurance, promotes international cooperation, supports lifelong learning and meets both the needs of individual and society.
Mission
The Institute for the Development of Education contributes to the development of higher education policy, provides expert support to institutions, connects domestic and international experts and enables individuals in Croatia and the region to achieve their educational goals.
Values and operating principles
The values the Institute for the Development of Education upholds are:
Equity - Ensuring equal opportunities, fighting discrimination and support to disadvantaged social groups as the basis for increasing social inclusion and the development of the society as a whole.
Participation and transparency - Promoting the principle of participatory democracy in order to strengthen the social responsibility of individuals and institutions. Promoting the principle of transparency in the work of public institutions and including stakeholders in the process of drafting legislation and other regulations.
Cooperation - Encouraging trust and dialogue between stakeholders in higher education (at the national and international level) through the exchange of information, stances and ideas, in order to reach decisions based on real needs, verifiable data and best practices.
Quality - Ensuring and enhancing quality as a precondition for establishing an effective higher education system and achieving high quality outcomes for higher education and research.
Objectives
Encourage enhancing of higher education policies in Croatia.
Provide advisory services and innovative solutions for development of higher education in Croatia and region.
Provide information and advising services on higher education opportunities, international mobility and financial aid for studies in Croatia and abroad
Ongoing projects
• “QUALITYWATCH: Croatian Higher Education Quality Watchdog” (2014-2016): Aim of this project is to make quality assurance procedures and their results more transparent and accessible for the interested public and to empower civil society organisations for monitoring quality assurance in higher education. Project is funded by European Commission (IPA - Transition Assistance and Institution Building Component). http://www.ipa-qualitywatch.eu/
• Peer-learning initiative for the social dimension of higher education (2012-2015): the project aims to provide policy-makers and practitioners in Europe with resources to develop effective measures for improving the social dimension of higher education. The project is led by the Institute for Advanced Studies (Austria) and IDE is one of four project partners. The project is funded by the European Commission (Lifelong learning programme, ERASMUS Multilateral projects). www.pl4sd.eu
• Enhancing procedures of validation of study programmes on the University of Rijeka (2015-2016): goal of this project is to enhance the quality of education on the University of Rijeka through creating occupational standards, qualifications standards and study programmes and life-long learning programmes based on the learning outcomes and labour market needs. http://unaprori.uniri.hr/o-projektu/
• IURISPRUDENTIA - Enhancing education quality on law schools of the universities in Osijek, Rijeka, and Split (2015-2016): goal of the project is to harmonize and modernize existing study programmes and create standards of qualifications and partial occupational standards in the field of law studies. http://www.pravos.unios.hr/iurisprudentia
• TARGET - Establishing higher education qualifications standards in the fields of mining engineering, geology and chemical technology (2015-2016): purpose of the project is to improve the system of quality assurance in higher education in mining engineering, geology and chemical technology through enabling recognition of qualifications in Croatian and European labour market and the comparability of qualifications obtained in various higher education institutions within Croatia and throughout the EU. http://www.rgn.unizg.hr/hr/studiji/projekt-target
Overview of IDE’s expertise and achievements in educational advising
Information and advising expertise
• In the last 15 years IDE has become a national reference point on information and advising services on higher education opportunities and financial aid for studies in Croatia and abroad
• IDE is the first organization of its kind in Croatia and is recognized as the leading organization within the Croatian academic community for educational advising services. IDE has over 2,000 members; over 17,000 queries per year (in-center, e-mail, telephone) and over 1 million web hits per year on its web sites
• IDE promotes study opportunities in the USA through its higher education portals www.stipendije.info and www.iro.hr, Facebook pages: I Want to Study Abroad: (www.facebook.com/studiranje.u.inozemstvu), Looking for Scholarships?: (https://www.facebook.com/trazim.stipendiju) and organizes virtual educational advising sessions and webinars with U.S. higher education representatives
Scholarships
• IDE organizes the largest Scholarships Fair in Zagreb and Rijeka every October, which annually attracts over 10 000 visitors and is now widely recognized as a high-profile Croatian educational brand
• IDE launched the first Croatian scholarships web portal www.stipendije.info, which has over 80,000 web hits per month
Educational services
• IDE has become a one-stop shop for educational advising and services for preparing candidates to enter to higher education programs
• IDE has become the leading service-provider in the region for international standardized tests (TOEFL, GMAT, GRE, SAT, etc). IDE organizes information and advising, preparation courses and acts as the Croatian Testing Center for TOEFL iBT (testing over 170 candidates per year) and GMAT (testing over 100 candidates per year)
• IDE provides courses on academic and business writing and organizes foreign language courses in over 50 locations worldwide
IDE can contribute to the national ALF Network through the wide range of contacts and partnerships established in the region and beyond. Also, through its activities, IDE has become leading Croatian NGO in the field of higher education, and as such can be a mediator for providing contacts with higher education institutions interested for partnerships with the civil society. Our contacts in governmental bodies and our high level of expertise in the area of higher education and project management can our assets for potential partnership with the members of the Network
So far our activities were oriented toward South-East and continental Europe, but we would like to spread are area of expertise also on Mediterranean region. We believe that cultural diversity of this region can enhance our understanding of the higher education systems in different national context. That way we can learn and enhance our expertise and share our experience with others interested in the development of higher education. AFL Network can be a useful tool for learning from new partners, and developing innovative approaches in our work.