Role of Business Intelligence Systems in Croatian Higher Education Quality Assurance

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.