Scholarly record

INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION AS A DEVELOPMENT WHEEL OF THE REGIONAL ECONOMY

Jelena Legcevic

Abstract

Higher education is an extremely fast growing service industry and it is exposed to the globalization processes every day more and more. Highly educated population have been thought as a key comparative advantage of the region in receiving long-term economic benefits through the knowledge effect, refferring to the knowledge production and technology transfer function of universities. Main purpose of this paper is to investigate has the perceptions of the main stakeholders of educational process, academic (teaching) staff, changed in two waves of measuring their satisfaction (years: 2009 and 2014). Reliable and validated KVALIMETAR measuring instrument has been used to compare perception results. 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 in the regional economy. The task of universities is to permanently cultivate the character of a public institution and demonstrate to itself and the region the value it possesses for its regional economy and the society as a whole, where by communication they provide a public space for discussing the current economic and social issues. The significance of this research lies in a mutual causal relationship between the high education and the economic development, which means that more developed high education systems will enable and prompt a stronger economic development while, at the same time, economic development requires, and by that also stimulates, a higher level of education.

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