Higher Education for National Development: Quality Assurance and Fostering Global Competencies.

Responding to the impact of globalization on delivering education and the increasing need to adapt to the needs of economic and social life, higher education institutions (HEI) effectiveness is depending on the use of technology and contribution to national development. While increasing access to higher education remains to be an important objective of national development, this paper shows how conscious use of education standards and technology as learning resources can have a significant role in building on changes to the advantage of the country such as training students for global competencies. The focus of this paper is on such positive practices implemented at Zagreb School of Economics and Management (ZSEM). Since its foundation in 2002, the school is promoting the use of technology and demostrating its quest for excellence through internationalization and application of international education standards. Today ZSEM has around 1400 students and about 150 courses with integrated e-learning system while currently 7% of students take part in various types of international exchange.