The conference was organised within the scope of the project „Modernisation of higher education institutions through enhancement of human resources management function“ (HRMinHEI) that is financed through funding from the European Union programme Erasmus+.

Higher education can be considered competitive if it effectively uses human resources in its social and economic development – this was the central idea behind the conference on Managing human resources at higher education institutions that was held on Friday, March 2nd, 2018 at the Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Zagreb, and organised by the Agency for Science and Higher Education.

Prof. dr. sc. Blaženka Divjak, Minister of Science and Education, opened the event by emphasising that people are the strongest link of any organisation, especially educational institutions. She also emphasised that the Ministry of Science and Education supports projects that put this topic at the forefront.

The conference was organised within the scope of the project „Modernisation of higher education institutions through enhancement of human resources management function“ (HRMinHEI) that is financed through funding from the European Union programme Erasmus+. Its purpose is to strengthen human resources management function at higher education institutions, and to develop innovative tools for self-analysis of the effectiveness of human resources management.

„The goal of this project is to encourage debate on increasing the organisational effectiveness and global competitiveness of higher education institutions, increasing their contribution to economic growth and social development by improving the quality of human capital in the area of higher education, as well as to encourage excellence among academic personnel“, stated prof. dr. sc. Jasmina Havranek, ASHE director.

The conference brought together many participants: representatives of higher education institutions and experts in managing human resources. Among them were prof. dr. sc. Snježana Prijić-Samaržija, Rector of the University of Rijeka, prof. dr. sc. Vlatko Cvrtila, Dean of VERN’ Polytechnic, dr. sc. Mislav Balković, Dean of Algebra University College, and other distinguished guests who had the opportunity to participate in debate on the following topics: how human resources (HR) management helps the development of higher education institutions, whether the development of this function is a necessity or a trend, and what is HR like at Croatian higher education institutions. The publication Overview of European and national policies related to human resources management at higher education institutions within the European higher education area was introduced, which came about as a result of this project.