engleski

Building the System of Public Administration Education and Training in Croatia: Per Aspera ad Astra?

At the beginning of the 1990s, when Croatia acquired independence from Yugoslavia, there were only a few two-year public administration studies in Croatia, attached to the four faculties of law, and one well established MSc study in public administration at the Faculty of Law in Zagreb. After that, a very dynamic development can be seen in the field of education for public administration. There are a lot of public and private institutions that offer BA degrees in public administration. Universities offer certain specialist and doctoral studies in the field. However, public administration studies are not very popular and are still seen as a wet area of low quality education. Public administration education is isolated within polytechnics and high schools, and is barely able to enter universities. Because of that, it can be developed, for now, only on the side track of high education in Croatia. Even the so-called Bologna reform process could not change such a situation. In this regard Croatia differs from the other countries on the territory of the former Yugoslavia – they are much faster and more determined in the development of the comprehensive public administration education systems. Several developmental trends in public administration education in Croatia can be observed in the last two decades: - Legal approach is still dominant in PA studies at public educational institutions, while managerial prevails at the private educational institutions ; - Continuous efforts to foster the interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary can be observed in public administration education ; - A lot of new contents are in-built in the new PA programs: ethics, the new public administration, European Administrative Space and European Law, good governance doctrine, financial management, human resource development and management, etc. - Modern BA programs are still under development ; - Very slow development of MA degrees can be seen ; - Doctoral and specialist postgraduate studies in PA are developed at high quality level ; - Vertical mobility of students has still not been established ; - Practical aspects are increasingly recognized in PA study programs. Public administration training is also under development. The very first training institution, the Centre for Professional Training within the Central State Office for Public Administration, was established at the beginning of 2004. The second one, the Academy for Local Development, was established in 2006, but is still ineffective. Various private sector initiatives are effective in the field of public administration training. Overall quality standards of such training are still moderate, at best. The new initiatives to make stronger ties with quality educational institutions can be observed. The authors are researching the situation with PA education in Croatia and will be able to present results at the Conference. Comparative situation is taken into account. The analysis of PA educational institutions and programs is accomplished with regard to the number, degree and content of PA curricula, educational methods, quality standards and quality assessment, study efficiency, etc. A special attention is placed on the quality standards that are researched in the frame of IASIA’s Standards of Excellence for Public Administration Education and Training. The authors are convinced that special attention in the PA education and training has to be paid to the value orientations. The main value orientation behind modern PA education and training should be seen in new social, democratic and ecological values constituting the new ethics and sustainable development. What needs to be fostered in the modern PA education and training is public interest and necessity of a public administration that is able to help and serve people, not to steer their lives.

administrative education; in-service training; public administration; value orientation; educational excellence; Bologna reform; Croatia and South-East Europe

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