Status and perspective of science and higher education in Croatia

In the article the author analyses the most important issues exerting pressure on Croatian higher education and science. He especially focuses on the inadequate understanding of the importance of science for a (desirable) development of Croatia, resulting in its totally insufficient financing. The need to change the existing system of higher education and science in terms of greater quality and excellence, which the author insists on, collides with a very resilient old attitude that both higher education and science belong to the sphere of consumption and that the growth of expenses for these fields of work should be postponed for some other "better" times. Due to a lack of understanding of science as a factor of development, it has been deprived of one of its most significant roles in Croatian society - that of development factor. The author does not remain only on the level of the existing situation but presents a set of proposals for solving the above-mentioned problems. He thus exemplifies some good and in practice proven European experiences, stressing the need for a meaningfully adequate and spatially balanced distribution of the higher education and science system. With regard to the existing level of education in Croatia he supports a considerable increase in the number of institutions, students and scientists. The article ends with the author stressing the need to give science an adequate role in the entire development of Croatia. He also supports interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary cooperation and suggests that the Agency for the Commercialisation of Scientific Research be established, in order to encourage economic development based on knowledge.