REGIONAL COOPERATION AND ECONOMIC INTEGRATION

CEFTA-2006 AND ANHANCING COMPETITIVENESS OF THE REGION - SOME SECTORAL ASPECTS
However, the reform of higher education is a great challenge for all Balkan transition
economies, as well as for the Republic of Serbia. On their way, the institutions are confronted
with various problems, like: insufficient financial resources for quality improvement,
deficit in competent professors in some field of science, inadequate management in higher
education institutions, outdated equipment and etc. So, they made a first step in their
improvement, but they must to do much more.
CONCLUSION
In this paper it have been confirmed a correlation between human capital, economic
development and facilitating FDI. It has been presented an example of an Ireland who
had a great successful investment in human capital which had in turn contributed to its
economic development. It has also been point out that the most percentage of investment
in human capital was in the improvement of quality of higher education. Having, in mind
those facts, it can be conclude that it is crucial for every Balkan transition economy to
invest more in improvement of a higher education system. High quality higher education
will provide competent experts capable of using their knowledge to contribute to economic
growth and development of the country. Beside that, people are becoming more aware of
the fact that by investing in their own education they get the chance to find a better job
and improve their life circumstances. Thus, it can be stated that in the 21 st century the
institutions of higher education are becoming more important, not only to a country but
also to an individual. As well as, higher education institutions must promote processes
aimed at regional integration. Cultural and educational integration should be the bases for
political and economic integration. In a global environment, higher education institutions
must approach their studies on regional integration in the light of the specific economic,
social, cultural, ecological and political aspects involved. Greater emphasis should be given
to the regionalization of specific disciplines, through programmes which target specific
needs that will generate employment.
At the very end of this paper it should be said that Balkan transition economies advanced
their higher education system to a great extent by implementing Bologna Declaration.
However, what is still left to be done is: to define a clear education policy, to invest more
intensely into the development of science and education, to adopt the National Strategy of
the higher education system reformation, as well as to follow the process of implementation
of the international standards and to constantly pass and adopt National Reports on Bologna
Process Implementation. All the regulations mentioned, with appreciating the experiences
of other countries in the region, would be used to make hypotheses for even more successful
reformation of the higher education system. When the institutions of higher education are
concerned, they have faced reality that the world is changing and they need to follow it. If
Balkan transition economies want to have high quality higher education institutions which
would be able to compete with the other higher education institutions in the world, they
need to invest much more money in education and science research. It is the only way to
develop their human resources and achieve international competitiveness.
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