Danish Agency for Science and Higher Education

This study investigates patterns in the language and type of social sciences and humanities (SSH) publications in non-English speaking European countries to demonstrate that such patterns are related not only to discipline but also to each country’s cultural and historic heritage. We investigate publication patterns that occur across SSH publications of the whole of the SSH and of economics and business, law, and philosophy and theology publications in the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Flanders (Belgium), Norway, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia. We use data from 74,022 peer-reviewed publications from 2014 registered in at least one of the eight countries’ national databases and for 272,376 peer-reviewed publications from the period of 2011–2014 registered in at least one of the seven countries’ national databases (for all countries except Slovakia). Our findings show that publication patterns differ both between fields (e.g. patterns in law differ from those in economics and business in the same way in Flanders and Finland) and within fields (e.g. patterns in law in the Czech Republic differ from patterns in law in Finland). We observe that the publication patterns are stable and quite similar in West European and Nordic countries, whereas in Central and Eastern European countries the publication patterns demonstrate considerable changes. Nevertheless, in all countries, the share of articles and the share of publications in English is on the rise. We conclude with recommendations for science policy and highlight that internationalization policies in non-English speaking countries should consider various starting points and cultural heritages in different countries.

We investigate the state of multilingualism across the social sciences and humanities (SSH) using a comprehensive data set of research outputs from seven European countries (Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Flanders [Belgium], Norway, Poland, and Slovenia). Although English tends to be the dominant language of science, SSH researchers often produce culturally and societally relevant work in their local languages. We collected and analyzed a set of 164,218 peer-reviewed journal articles (produced by 51,063 researchers from 2013 to 2015) and found that multilingualism is prevalent despite geographical location and field. Among the researchers who published at least three journal articles during this time period, over one-third from the various countries had written their work in at least two languages. The highest share of researchers who published in only one language were from Flanders (80.9%), whereas the lowest shares were from Slovenia (57.2%) and Poland (59.3%). Our findings show that multilingual publishing is an ongoing practice in many SSH research fields regardless of geographical location, political situation, and/or historical heritage. Here we argue that research is international, but multilingual publishing keeps locally relevant research alive with the added potential for creating impact.

This article provides an overview of national bibliographic databases that include data on research output within social sciences and humanities (SSH) in Europe. We focus on the comprehensiveness of the database content. Compared to the data from commercial databases such as Web of Science and Scopus, data from national bibliographic databases (e.g. Flemish Academic Bibliographic Database for the SSH (VABB-SHW) in Belgium, Current Research Information System in Norway (CRISTIN)) are more comprehensive and may, therefore, be better fit for bibliometric analyses. Acknowledging this, several countries within Europe maintain national bibliographic databases; detailed and comparative information about their content, however, has been limited. In autumn 2016, we launched a survey to acquire an overview of national bibliographic databases for SSH in Europe and Israel. Surveying 41 countries (responses received from 39 countries), we identified 21 national bibliographic databases for SSH. Further, we acquired a more detailed description of 13 databases, with a focus on their comprehensiveness. Findings indicate that even though the content of national bibliographic databases is diverse, it is possible to delineate a subset that is similar across databases. At the same time, it is apparent that differences in national bibliographic databases are often bound to differences in country-specific arrangements. Considering this, we highlight implications to bibliometric analyses based on data from

Quality assurance in higher education in Croatia is conducted by and in line with the European standards and guidelines developed by the European umbrella organization for quality assurance in higher education, European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA). One of the standards for internal quality assurance directly relates to the information management stating that ”Institutions should ensure that they collect, analyse and use relevant information for the effective management of their programmes and other activities.” Internal quality assurance is, or should be, at the core of every higher education institution, influencing its performance and quality perceived by its users, but also external evaluators (e.g. government and professional bodies that regulate or influence the work of the institution). Higher education institutions can ensure the quality of their services only through a well-developed internal quality assurance system that can provide information for timely decisions. This paper will analyse the requirements and obligations that higher education institutions have regarding the collection, processing and analysis of data within the scope of their work. In addition, it will provide examples of existing and possible use of information systems that lead to improvement of internal quality assurance system of the higher education providers.

This paper deals with hedging which is one of the trading techniques in the futures markets and with the role of hedging as a protecting strategy.Indirectly, hedging affects the competitiveness of a company by reducing overall operating expenses and increasing the level of competitiveness at the same time.The theoretical fundamentals of the hedging strategy are explained, followed by a survey on relevant theoretical findings and research on hedging and its importance in contemporary economic life.Basic types of risk in firms are clearly described, as well as principal hedging models which are in accordance with the International Financial Reporting Standards.Finally, the paper deals with the financial aspects of hedging, stressing the role and the importance of the principle of the financial leverage.

AbstractThis paper aims to investigate relationships among nine institutional quality dimensions in order to identify the effect of each quality dimension on the others in an institutional evaluation. The relationships between 9 quality dimensions in 78 institutional evaluations are explored quantitatively using the Pearson correlation matrix. The results show that teaching quality dimensions are interrelated, as are research dimensions, suggesting a clear separation between the teaching and research characteristics of institutions, nationally. However, the analysis points out that full-time faculty adequacy is a good predictor of quality of both teaching and research. Findings of this study contribute to the evaluation of the institutional teaching and research nexus as well as to the discussion on the role of peer review in external quality evaluation schemes.Key words: full-time faculty adequacy; quality assurance; peer review; higher education, teaching, research---SažetakCilj je rada istražiti odnose između devet institucijskih dimenzija kvalitete kako bi se utvrdio međusobni utjecaj svake od njih. Pri tome se kvantitativno analiziraju korelacije 9 dimenzija kvalitete u 78 institucija uz upotrebu Pearsonove korelacijske matrice. Rezultati pokazuju da su dimenzije kvalitete poučavanja međusobno povezane, upravo kao i dimenzije istraživanja. Takvi rezultati sugeriraju jasno razdvajanje nastavnoga i istraživačkoga obilježja institucija u nacionalnom kontekstu. Međutim, analiza pokazuje i da je odgovarajući broj i kvalifikacije nastavnika i dobar prediktor kvalitete obje aktivnosti sveučilišta - nastave i istraživanja. Rezultati ovoga istraživanja doprinose boljem razumijevanju povezanosti institucijskih dimenzija kvalitete, posebice onih koje se odnose na kvalitetu nastave i istraživanja. Ujedno, istraživanje predstavlja i doprinos raspravi o ulozi istorazinske procjene u postupcima vanjskoga vrednovanja kvalitete.Ključne riječi: istorazinska procjena; istraživanje; nastava; nastavnici; osiguravanje kvalitete; visoko obrazovanje

The paper presents the results of research on human rights conducted during 2018 and 2019 at faculties of teacher education and studies of psychology, pedagogy, and social work in Croatia. The aim of the research was to examine the representation of human rights learning outcomes in these studies, with a special emphasis on children’s rights, children’s participation, and the concept of the child as an active citizen, common in the discourse of the contemporary childhood paradigm. The research was conducted by using the mixed methods approach. Triangulation with three different sources of respondents was applied: a survey with university teachers, interviews with representatives of study programs, and a survey with students, where all types of data in the analysis were treated as equal. Different types of data showed unequal perspectives between institutional actors, but also similarities of the university population with other levels of the education system.

The European Union is developing as a community of uneven economic development of its members. On the one hand the economy of Western Europe and the Baltic Sea is classified into the leading world economies; on the other side, Central and Eastern Europe are now the economies in transition. This non uniformity of the European Union causes the various forms of intervention, financial and guiding, as for example: strategic documents. Their purpose is to raise the level of development and to narrow the gap between the economies in transition and the developed European economies. One intention of important strategic documents is to focus on the concept of regional development, strengthening of the local government and formation of the European model of development, which is based on affirmation of regional competitive advantages. The question is if it is possible and how to develop a model of regional development in the political, social and economic conditions which prevail in the transition economies. Taking into account the above, the purpose of this study is to analyse basic components of the factors, which affect the operating system of development and to valorise the basic factors of the model of regional development, which should be the cornerstone of the national economic development of all the member states. The research hypothesis posed is that strategic documents of the European Union constitute the key factor in the concept of regional economic development of the national economies of Europe. The research question which needs an answer is how the whole system of economic development, on the macro level works, and what prerequisites are necessary to ensure its functioning. Some economies in transition, such as the Croatian economy are trying to base their development on the legal framework, which should also work in the operating sphere of the economy. The question is whether it is possible. This study looks into this issue.

Since 2004 the higher education in Croatia is structured according to the Bologna process and offers three-degree cycles: undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate. Given that Croatia has a binary higher education system, study programmes can be more academically oriented (university studies) or more labour market-oriented (professional studies). While the former can be conducted only at universities and its constituents, the latter is conducted typically at polytechnics and colleges, but exceptionally also at universities. Higher education in Croatia has a long history and currently it is provided by eight public and two private universities, eleven public and five private polytechnics, and three public and nineteen private colleges. The University of Zadar is the oldest university that was founded in 1396 and was renewed in 2002. The largest university (by a number of constituents as well as a number of students) is the University of Zagreb, continuously working since 1669. Higher education institutions (HEIs) went through processes of regular periodic re-accreditation governed by the Agency for Science and Higher Education (ASHE). ASHE started the new re-accreditation cycle in 2017 where applied criteria for (self)evaluation have been improved in accordance with the new Standards and guidelines for quality assurance in the EHEA (ESG). Re-accreditation procedures are supported by the information system - Module of the Agency for Evaluation support (MOZVAG) which provides the data used in processes of external quality assurance evaluations and has been recently upgraded. Instead, to collect the data from paper documents, the decision was made to gather the data from the existing bibliographies and other databases storing the data relevant to the research in Croatia. Nowadays all quantitative data used in the new re-accreditation procedure are obtained through the MOZVAG database. There are four categories of data used for the re-accreditation: 1. Study programmes and learning outcomes 2. Learning process and student support 3. Human and institutional resources 4. Scholarly/artistic and professional activities. To ease the process of data gathering and improve the accuracy and comprehensiveness of the data, new release of MOZVAG import the data about various HEIs activities which are stored in other with other information systems. For example, administrative data about HEI are imported from Information System of Higher Education Institutions (ISVU), data about publications from the Croatian Scientific Bibliography - CROSBI and data about projects from the Project Database of the Croatian Research and Higher Education System. To enable this, different adjustments at different levels have been made. For publications, the most challenging was the mapping process between evaluation criteria in the different disciplines, which are often ambiguous, and metadata description of different types of publications. An established system to exchange the data was tested in a pilot in which ten HEIs participated. Continuous cooperation will improve all included information systems as well as interoperability levels.