ZAGREB, March 9 (Hina) - Cooperation in the Central European Exchange Programme for University Studies (CEEPUS) is an excellent test for Croatia to join processes of harmonisation of higher education in Europe as set by the Bologna
Declaration, Science and Technology Minister Gvozden Flego said on Saturday.
ZAGREB, March 9 (Hina) - Cooperation in the Central European
Exchange Programme for University Studies (CEEPUS) is an excellent
test for Croatia to join processes of harmonisation of higher
education in Europe as set by the Bologna Declaration, Science and
Technology Minister Gvozden Flego said on Saturday. #L#
He said Croatia was given the chance to expand cooperation within
CEEPUS by signing the CEEPUS II agreement, which goes into force on
1 January 2005.
The agreement was signed in Zagreb today at the end of a ministerial
conference of the nine CEEPUS members -- Austria, Bulgaria, the
Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and
Slovenia.
Flego said all Croatian universities could be equal participants in
CEEPUS programmes but that he did not know to what extent they were
taking advantage of this opportunity.
He added that by 1 January 2005 Croatia had to make all the
preparations required to participate in joint programmes and the
awarding of joint diplomas.
The joint post-graduate studies that were discussed at the Zagreb
conference are "very good for countries which are small and not too
rich," said the minister, adding these studies would give Croatia
the chance to compensate for the lack of highly specialised
education programmes.
The Bologna Declaration is a document signed on 19 June 1999 by
ministers from 29 European countries in bids to establish by 2010 a
European educational system with recognisable and comparable
academic degrees. Croatia signed the declaration on 18 May 2001,
committing to adjust its higher education with the principles set
in the declaration by 2010.
(hina) ha