Academic Staff Participation in University Governance: Internal Responses to External Quality Demands

Higher education in Croatia isconfronted with new trends and quality demandsmostly connected with Bologna processes. It isassumed that Croatian universities with theirexisting governance structures, characterisedby strong state regulation and weakinstitutional administration, cannot respondeffectively to new demands. Findings of thesurvey on conceptions of governance at theCroatian universities are presented in thepaper, with its main aim to explore academicstaff's perception of university governance.The idea of the university as a “learningorganisation” with strong leadership and engagedacademic staff is taken as the desired model.Mapping the opinions of academic staff on thepresent governance structures, their role ingovernance issues, and making an inventory oftheir perceptions of strengths and weaknessesof governance processes, forms importantbackground for reflections on adequatemodifications in academic governance.