General information
Name of the study: Graduate Study in ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Proponent of the study: J. J. Strossmayer University in Osijek
Holder of the study: Faculty of Economics in Osijek
Duration of the study: 2 years (graduate)
Conditions for enrolment to the study: completed undergraduate study (students who completed Undergraduate Study in ENTREPRENEURSHIP or in other orientations at the Faculty of Economics are enrolled to the Graduate Study in Entrepreneurship without any additional requirements; if students with completed other undergraduate studies are enrolled, courses that such students will have to enrol will be determined – prerequisites)
Graduate study: by completing Graduate Study in ENTREPRENEURSHIP student acquires competences of understanding the process of growth of a business venture based on knowledge and innovations, i.e., is enabled for managing business systems with growth potential.
Academic title: Master (mag.) in economics, upon completion of the graduate study
Introduction
In accordance with the perceived regional and national needs, the Faculty Council of the Faculty of Economics in Osijek, J.J. Strossmayer University of Osijek on May 5, 2004 has accepted the concept of the International Centre for Entrepreneurial Studies, as a study orientation at the Faculty of Economics in Osijek, which will encompass:
- Educational vertical from undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate studies
- Lifelong learning programmes – short educational programmes for entrepreneurs (in collaboration with the Centre for Entrepreneurship in Osijek)
- Research (scientific and applicable) activities in the field of entrepreneurship
Reasons for starting the study
There are three fundamental reasons for strategic commitment to entrepreneurship:
- Unsatisfied needs for entrepreneurial education (demand)
- Unsatisfactory supply
- “Catching up” with the trends in the developed world
Unsatisfied needs/demand
High unemployment in Croatia and above average unemployment in eastern Croatia obviously require a change in the training of young people: the capacity of youth for self-employment has to be increased, and then the capacity of the employed for managing company growth based on knowledge and innovations. The process of restructuring of big public companies and the restructuring of military forces will intensify the problem of training for self-employment and managing small and medium-sized companies with growth potential. At the same time, eastern Croatia is marked by the lowest level of entrepreneurial activity measured by the TEA index: on 1 newly founded company per 100 adults (18-64 years of age) in eastern Croatia, there are 4.3 such companies in Zagreb and 3.1 in Istria.
Unsatisfactory demand
There are no undergraduate studies or graduate studies in entrepreneurship in Croatia. Only at the J.J. Strossmayer University in Osijek within the Faculty of Economics in Osijek there is a program for obtaining the Master of Science in entrepreneurship degree.
“Catching up” with the trends in the developed world
There are around 500 university programmes in the field of entrepreneurship in the USA, primarily at all the best ranked universities. In Europe, United Kingdom and the Scandinavian countries are at the forefront. The reason for these tendencies lies in recognizing the needs for the development of entrepreneurial culture and the small and medium-sized enterprise sector, which is the dominant source of employment in all those countries (around 90%).
The European Union has recognized the priority importance of entrepreneurial culture in creation of competitive advantage, and numerous initiatives for strengthening university education for entrepreneurship have been started. There are two fundamental EU documents that oblige Croatia:
- European Charter for Small Enterprises, 2000 – Croatia has signed the acceptance of obligations from this document in 2003. From ten items, the first is education and training for entrepreneurship, for increasing entrepreneurial culture.
- Entrepreneurship in Europe, Green Paper, European Commission, 2003, which defines entrepreneurship as the way of thinking and the process of creation and development of economic activity by combining risk taking, creativity and/or innovation with quality management, within a new or an already existing business system.
