Analysis of the development of the University of Josip Juraj Strossmayer in Osijek and its role in building the information society

Universities play a significant role in the development of the society they act in. Their role is mainly felt at regional level. Nevertheless, through their scientific research, artistic and educational work, universities have a significant impact on a wider environment as well. The University of Josip Juraj Strossmayer in Osijek, continuing a three-century-long tradition of higher education in Eastern Croatia, is one of the most important factors of development of the region. The new millennium has posed new challenges. The ongoing transformation process is extremely complex and requires the engagement of not only the entire academic community, but also of any entity interacting with the university. In order to give an overview of the main development trends of the University over the past ten years, the study presented in this paper applies adequate statistical methods and models. Deriving from the commitment taken by Croatia to found its social and economic progress on building an information society, the study puts special emphasis on analysing the possibility for the University of Josip Juraj Strossmayer in Osijek to actively contribute to the above process by providing conditions for the implementation of research programmes and projects as well as for the education and training of computer science human resources.