UNESCO Chair in Entrepreneurship of Josip Juraj Strossmayer University in Osijek located at the Faculty of Economics in Osijek operates since February 2008, when the agreement on its establishment was signed by Koichiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO and Gordana Kralik Ph.D., Rector of the Josip Juraj Strossmayer University in Osijek. Professor Slavica Singer, Ph.D. was appointed UNESCO Chair in Entrepreneurship.
The purpose of the Chair shall be to promote an integrated system of research, training, information and documentation in the field of entrepreneurial studies. It will serve as a means of facilitating collaboration between high-level, internationally recognized researchers and teaching staff of the University and other institutions in Croatia and Europe.
The overall aim of the Chair shall be to build human and social capital in Croatia and in neighboring countries, in order to strengthen the entrepreneurial capacity of individuals and institutions for innovativeness, change, competition and cooperation, aiming to close development gaps inside Croatia; and between Croatia and the EU.
It’s specific objectives will be:
- To develop new faculty in entrepreneurship education, through a Ph.D. program focused on theoretical and practical issues of building an eterprising society
- To develop the pedagogical skills of the faculty in entrepreneurship, based on
- an experiental classroom approach, with the Distance Learning dimension of the program
- To legitimize entrepreneurial studies in the portfolio of university based educational activities
- To develop strong executive programs, based on on-going assesments of entrepreneurs’ needs, jontly with the local Center for Entrepreneurship in Osijek
UNESCO Chair in Entrepreneurship is supported by:
- Croatian Commission for UNESCO
- Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia
- Ministry of Science, Education and Sports of the Republic of Croatia
- Josip Juraj Strossmayer University in Osijek
- Centre for Entrepreneurship Osijek
- Business Incubator – BIOS Osijek
- Technology Development Centre Osijek
- CEPOR – SMEs and Entrepreneurship Policy Center Zagreb
- University of Turku, Turku School of Economics, Finland
- University of Wisconsin-Madison, School of Business, USA
- Saint Louis University, John Cook School of Business, USA
