Suchergebnisse

This paper has been conducted to explore the major issues and problems in higher education regarding the decentralisation, privatization, accreditation and public financing processes in Slovenia. There is significant political pressure supporting the idea that if Slovenia has regions they should be as busy as possible. The real danger is that the introduction of small regions and 7-10 universities will only strengthen centralisation. Slovenian public expenditure on education has generally been relatively high. However, in recent years the proportion of annual GDP spent on higher education has decreased. There is a need for student protection and regulation. For many public and private universities, however, accreditation is mainly seen as an opportunity to strengthen their image by demonstrating their quality.

This article presents the results of the research work "Awarding work to external contractors," carried out with a questionnaire in 2009 and 2010. The research examined the method and scope of public procurement in Slovenian municipalities with more than 8000 inhabitants. The objectives of the research work were: a comparison of public procurement legislation in selected EU countries; determination of the current situation in the field of public procurement in local government in years 2008 and 2009; determination of similarities and differences in the implementation of contracts; determination of the most common open questions in the implementation of contracts; determination of good practices in public procurement and making the recommendations for changes. Public procurement represents a significant proportion of national budget spending. Municipalities allocate around 20% of all expenditures to public procurement. The scope and methods of public procurement vary between municipalities. Small-value public procurement is determined by the municipalities in their internal acts, while large-value public procurement has legally prescribed procedures. New legislation on public procurement has brought innovations in the field of public tender and contract award procedures for procurement, which enables greater flexibility in the implementation and realisation of public procurement. This article presents also the European directives on public procurement and an international comparison of public procurement in selected EU and EEA states.

his paper argues that national innovation infrastructure is closely linked with the scientific output and that some other factors, such as decentralized governance, can in certain combinations with innovation infrastructure lead to a higher scientific output. It demonstrates this by using a set-theoretic fsQCA method to analyze the data on national innovation capacities, fiscal decentralization, and science policy output. Results confirm that while a national innovation infrastructure is a necessary condition for successful scientific output, decentralization in certain, but not all cases leads to successful scientific output and that the paths to a successful scientific output in different countries are diverse.

The aim of this article is to present practices for regulating elementary and secondary education from an international perspective. It presents processes needed to introduce a system of external evaluation and takes account of the danger that if not carefully thought out, external evaluation can adhere to procedure to too great an extent, to the detriment of actual improvements in education. An external evaluation model that could be implemented in the Slovenian education system is then proposed. The proposed model stresses schools' accountability to the public, the dissemination of effective practices, and the delivery of relevant information to those in charge of national school policy. The model upgrades existing mechanisms for assessing and maintaining quality and links them with a legislation proposal to form a coherent whole.

The global financial and economic crisis has resulted in large macroeconomic imbalances and a sharp strain on public finances. The negative effects and consequences of the crisis can be more easily and successfully overcome with the help of cross-border cooperation, particularly through the transfer of good practice, experience and knowledge across borders. The aim of this paper is to show that cross-border cooperation can help to overcome the global financial and economic crisis. Factors promoting and hindering cross-border cooperation play a pivotal role in the success of cross-border cooperation. The paper employs a descriptive and analytical approach. The results of empirical research into cross-border cooperation in the Alps-Adriatic region between Carinthia, Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Slovenia are analysed. These results highlight the factors which promote and hinder cross-border cooperation, suggesting that personal contacts are the most important factors in promoting cross-border cooperation, while the level of assistance provided and administrative/legislative barriers are the greatest hindrances to cross-border cooperation.

The global financial and economic crisis has resulted in large macroeconomic imbalances and a sharp strain on public finances. The negative effects and consequences of the crisis can be more easily and successfully overcome with the help of cross-border cooperation, particularly through the transfer of good practice, experience and knowledge across borders. The aim of this article is to show that, cross-border cooperation can help to overcome the global financial and economic crisis. Factors promoting and hindering cross-border cooperation play a pivotal role in the success of cross-border cooperation. This article employs a descriptive and analytical approach. The results of empirical research into cross-border cooperation in the Alps-Adriatic region between Carinthia, Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Slovenia are analysed. These results highlight the factors which promote and hinder cross-border cooperation, suggesting that personal contacts are the most important factors in promoting cross-border cooperation, while the level of assistance provided and administrative/legislative barriers are the greatest hindrances to cross-border cooperation. Adapted from the source document.

The research project "Awarding Work to External Contractors" studied the practice of implementing public contracts in a significant selection of Slovenian local government bodies. Public procurement has become a permanent accompaniment to the business of central and local government and other public law persons with the private sector, and now goes beyond Slovenia's borders. The public procurement system aims at dynamism, with the possibility of a rapid response to the needs of those using public funds. The principles of public procurement and its legal basis mean the system is rigid and complex, by its nature.

In this research, we assessed the impact of the socio-economic status (average net wages, the registered unemployment rate), education structure and demographic risk (the age dependency ratio) of residents of different Slovenian municipalities on scores on the nationwide, external assessment of knowledge given to pupils in grade 9 of primary school. The analysis was conducted using data for 201 Slovenian municipalities where the National Assessment of Knowledge (NAK) was given to 9th-grade primary school pupils in the years 2012, 2013 and 2014. This test assesses learners' knowledge of the Slovene language and mathematics. The data were used to calculate basic descriptive statistics, as well as coefficients, correlations and validated regression models. The findings show that registered unemployment rate, average educational attainment and the age dependency ratio influence achievements in mathematics. The findings for the Slovene portion of the National Assessment of Knowledge are not as expressive, but do indicate that the registered unemployment rate and age dependency ratio have an impact.