Who are we?

The Council of Universities and University Colleges of Applied Sciences (CUUCAS) has around 36 member institutions in the field of professional higher education with about 37000 students. The Council as an umbrella organization harmonizes and represents the interests of its members and contributes to the creation and implementation of strategic documents of the Government of the Republic of Croatia on the development of science and higher education. AZVO/ASHE is a legal representative of CUUCAS. The essential strategic determinant of the Council’s work is highlighting  an importance and improvements of such HE system where besides high quality classic Universities also exists professional higher education institutions with a focus on practices and particularly strong connection with the field of work, that are valuable for the country.

Why we are participating in the project

Professional higher education in Croatia, as in the all SEE region is under development. Originally Croatia planned to have a binary HE system where all professional HE, by the year 2010, will be gone from Classical Universities and delivered only by separate institutions so called Universities and University Colleges of Applied Sciences. Universities never got out of the professional HE education. CUUCAS as umbrella organization are focused on improving quality and Higher Education system as a whole in Croatia by proposing adequate recommendations and policy proposal that would enable our sector to deliver according expectations.

Our role in the project

Our role was twofold: to identify what needs to be done to improve procedures in our country, to share with others what we did right and learn from them what they have done right. We proposed in total around 18 improvements and provided about 18 examples of good practices that can help others.

Our Team

Žarko Nožica

Žarko Nožica

International relationship

Scientist and professor. Has 20+ years experience in University (In Croatia) and Industry environment (in USA; California).Dr. Nozica was a member of the faculty at the University of Zagreb. He was prorector at the Polytechnic of Zagreb and dean at University College of Applied Computer Engineering Algebra where he also helped envision, develop curricula and establish the institution. He wrote 2 books on Algorithms and methods used in electronic design automation and optimization and Introduction to Microprocessor based design, and published more than 30 articles and conference papers.

Maja Šegvić

Maja Šegvić

Liaison to ASHE, admin

Maja is a head of Department for Professional Studies at the Agency for Science and Higher Education in Croatia. She provides professional and administrative support to the Croatian Council of Universities and University Colleges of Applied Sciences. For the past ten years she has been working in the field of quality assurance as a coordinator in institutional and programme accreditation procedures. She obtained master degree in public administration at the Faculty of Law University of Zagreb.

Bjanka Mlinarić

Bjanka Mlinarić

Liaison to ASHE, admin

Bjanka is a head of Department for Financial Affairs in Financial - Accounting Division of the Agency for Science and Higher Education in Croatia. She has been working at ASHE in finances for over twelve years. Bjanka also provides financial and administrative support on various projects such as IPA, Tempus, Erasmus+ and ESF projects. She has bachelor degree in business economy from Faculty of Economics and Business University of Zagreb.