Case Study: The Role of Diaspora Regarding Students’ Attitudes toward Studying in Croatia at University of Zagreb

Case Study: Case Study: The Role of Diaspora Regarding Students’ Attitudes toward Studying in Croatia at University of Zagreb

Summary

The integrational potential of second and third generation high school students of Croatian descent is an integral part of University of Zagreb’s Internationalisation Strategy which includes the attentivness for Croatian diaspora, and encompasses this paper’s analysis. The University of Zagreb sees great potential for a large number of Croatian descendants worldwide to be involved academically at the University. Therefore, academic involvement and attentivness for the Croatian diaspora make up an integral part of the University’s mission regarding international cooperation. In this article, the authors  analyze the role of diaspora in the process of internationalisation of the University of Zagreb through the factor of return migration, where the model of young diaspora students attending the University of Zagreb is the focus of this research. The main goal was to analyze pull factors and motivations for studying in Croatia for  second-and-third generation descendants of Croatian immigrants – high school students from Mississauga, Ontario. With respect to the survey, the case study research was conducted on the attitudes of high school students (F. M. Goetz CSS, Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board International Languages Program) of Croatian descent towards studying in Croatia at the University of Zagreb. The survey questions, therefore, have targeted opinions of young diaspora students with regards to their intent to study in Croatia.

Furthermore, the research inquired about students’ preferred field of study, and possible obstacles to studying at the University of Zagreb. The new framework of diaspora theory (Cohen, 1997; Riggs, 1999) has been applied to analyze the mobility of diaspora as an alternative model of social integration.

Key words: Croatian diaspora, Canada, student population, academic involvement, University of Zagreb’s Internationalisation Strategy, Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board International Languages Program.