Linking Higher Education And Economy As A Role For Regional Development

Higher education, research and innovation play a crucial role in supporting social cohesion, economic growth and global competitiveness. Broader access to higher education by linking with the economy is an opportunity for higher education institutions to make use of a new richness of diverse individual experiences for empowering the development of the local community. Main objective of the paper is by evaluating necessary skills for current and future needs of the economy to find out whether the Croatian education system is able to acquire knowledge and skills relevant to the current needs of the economy. Research has been conducted among graduated (alumni) students at the University of Osijek who by using knowledge and skills acquired in the study successfully perform work in the profession. This target group of respondents is particularly interesting because the five year lag of working in the profession, can give a clear picture of the quality of educational programs which are important for development of the individual, on one hand, and for development of the local community, on the other hand. Reliable and validated KVALIMETAR measuring instrument has been used to compare perception results, among graduated (alumni) students, in two waves of measuring: 2009 year and 2014 year. By comparing the results of the research it will be detected critical points in the quality management system as well as to ensure quality guidelines for increasing the level of satisfaction of all stakeholders as well as the overall quality level of the University. The significance of this research is also in the connectivity needs of the labor market with the implementation of educational programs and linking the evaluation of learning outcomes that create a baseline in the alignment of the Croatian Qualifications Framework (CQF) with the European Qualifications Framework (EQF).