Management of Institutions on the Example of Student Centres

Student centres in the Republic of Croatia act as non-profit public institutions whose founders are universities and polytechnics. Their activity is to organize food and accommodation, temporary and occasional employment of students, and cultural, sports and other activities. They are not the state budget users nor are they financed by their universities founders either. The Ministry of Science supports students by subsidizing, but without defraying the expenses of the student centres activities. As non-profit organizations, everything that centres book as revenues, they should return into the activity again. In accordance with the Act on Institutions, (National Gazette No 76/1993, 29/1997, 47/1999, and 35/2008) student centres are managed by Governing body, and the principal is the manager of the student centre. The Centre can also have Professional body that discusses and makes decisions about professional issues of the centre activity. Internal structure is established by the statute and the survillance of student centres is conducted by the ministry in charge. The main issue in management of student centres is the answer to the question; how, from the existing revenues, meet all the expenses necessary to easily conduct the activity, regarding the fact that the prices of food and accommodation for students and subsidies from the Ministry of Science, Education and Sport were established by the decision of the Ministry in 1994, and they have not been changed since. Based on the conducted researches, we are of belief that it is possible to significantly improve student centres activity; primarily by introducing permanent mechanisms for automatic correction of food and accommodation prices correspondingly to life expenses, subsidizing from the national budget based on the number of students, improving food quality, ensuring transparent public tender procedures on determining the most suitable suppliers, and providing own additional resources.