With student migration trends changing, rising costs, and tougher international competition, small universities in Europe need to play their cards right to stay relevant. Few people are better placed to explain this than Prof. Nebojša Stojcic PhD, rector and full professor at the University of Dubrovnik. He specialises in Economics of Innovation and Industrial Economics, and in his research he is mostly concerned with emerging innovation systems in Central and Eastern Europe and in some parts of Asia.
As one of the visible academic leaders of internationalisation in Croatian higher education, Prof. Stojcic has been closely involved in positioning the University of Dubrovnik as a more internationally connected institution, strengthening its global partnerships, international programmes and visibility among students, researchers and policy communities.
In simple words, prof. Stojcic sheds light on how nations that, over past decades, built their competitiveness on a production-driven model, can become sustainable at high-income levels. His academic work has been recognised internationally: for several years, he has been featured on Stanford University’s list of the world’s top 2% most influential researchers and is among the most cited Croatian economists. At the University of Dubrovnik, he also coordinates Business Economics in Digital Environment, the most internationalised Croatian doctoral programme in the field of economics. He is the founder and director of the CREDO Business Research Centre at the University of Dubrovnik.
In this Campus Conversations interview with Studyportals, prof. Stojcic discusses how AI is changing Economics, why students need broader interdisciplinary skills, and how smaller destinations such as Croatia can become more visible to international students. He also shares how the University of Dubrovnik responded to demographic pressure and overtourism by building a more international, research-oriented future.
Economics, AI and the value of lifelong learning
Studyportals: How did you decide to stay in academia rather than work in the corporate sector?
Prof. Nebojša Stojcic: I would say it started already during my Master’s. At that time, I had a scholarship from one of the multinationals here in South Eastern Europe, and I was spending every summer, and part of my winter break, working in the corporate sector.
I had the first-hand opportunity to experience that world. Being among the top students, I was often assisting in management offices, so that gave me a flavour of what I could expect there. At the same time, I had the opportunity to engage in research with our professors here at the University of Dubrovnik, where I was studying at the time. So, one thing led to another, and I realised this was the path I wanted to pursue.
Studyportals: How does AI find its way into Economics?
Prof. Nebojša Stojcic: In many ways. On the one hand, it is a productivity enhancer, that is for sure. But on the other hand, historically speaking, any technological transformation has meant a turnover in the nature of jobs and in the demand for certain types of jobs.
We now see that many professions, even some that a couple of years ago were deemed highly profitable, are at the verge of becoming redundant, because of AI. At the same time, this hits the foundations of the growth model of many economies, particularly the emerging innovation systems I mentioned previously. Their competitive advantage was in the cost-efficient doing of repetitive, standardised, labour-intensive activities, which were among the first to be replaced by AI. So, this raises a number of issues, from individual choices to developmental choices.
We need to rethink whether many of the conventional laws of economics that we have been teaching our students for many years and decades are still relevant, or whether they need to be revisited and maybe revised.
Studyportals: If you were a student again, knowing everything that is happening with AI and today’s changes, what would you do differently?
Prof. Nebojša Stojcic: Maybe I would start with some issues a bit earlier, things I had to catch along the way. But generally, all the hype that is happening today, I do not see it as much different from what was happening in previous technological breakthroughs. The stories that we witness today were witnessed 50 years ago, 100 years ago, even at the advent of economics. It is all part of the journey, and we just have to adapt along the way.
That being said, my biggest realisation after all these years, reflecting on my education, was that it does not end once you graduate or once you finish your Bachelor’s. It is a constant journey. The biggest mistake a person can make is to relax and say, “Now I know it all” after the formal cycle is finished.
My biggest realisation after all these years, reflecting on my education, was that it does not end once you graduate or once you finish your Bachelor’s. It is a constant journey. The biggest mistake a person can make is to relax and say, “Now I know it all” after the formal cycle is finished.
Maybe what I would do differently, thinking as we speak, would be to start from the beginning by broadening my horizon to other disciplines. For many years, I was confined within economics and business. But these days, interdisciplinarity is the buzzword. Even economics and business programmes nowadays cannot function without a considerable input from other disciplines that are essential for people entering the professional world.
Studyportals: Could you give some examples?
Prof. Nebojša Stojcic: In Economics today, there is a lot of talk about Behavioural Economics. We experiment a lot with Psychology, so you need to have some knowledge of that.
Then, for example, in Marketing, something that we do a lot here in Dubrovnik is Affective Computing or Neuromarketing, which is at the intersection of Economics, Psychology, Neuromedicine, Sciences, and Computing. So, you need to have some background in these areas.
If you are a statistician or a data analyst, you are also bound to have some knowledge related to computing. These are just some first examples that cross my mind.
Even when we do research projects, when we apply for funding, it is getting harder and harder to find something that is focused on only one discipline. I think the education of the future will have to increasingly combine these different aspects into interdisciplinary programmes.
How universities are rethinking degrees for a changing job market
Studyportals: From a university perspective, this opens up many possibilities. How do universities decide which combinations to focus on when building courses?
Prof. Nebojša Stojcic: Basically, you need to listen to market demand, you need to be always alert, you need to forecast, and you need to be aware that the need for revision and adjustment of programmes is constant.
When I was a student, several decades ago, it was not unusual to find institutions that delivered the same programme for five or even 10 years. Nowadays, a programme that goes unchanged for such a period of time would probably be obsolete and uncompetitive.
I am not saying there is a need to rewrite it from scratch so frequently, but constant revisions are definitely needed because the environment around us is changing, knowledge is progressing, and we need to constantly introduce new types of skills for our students.
When I was a student, several decades ago, it was not unusual to find institutions that delivered the same programme for five or even 10 years. Nowadays, a programme that goes unchanged for such a period of time would probably be obsolete and uncompetitive.
Studyportals: Universities are not always seen as flexible institutions. Is that changing?
Prof. Nebojša Stojcic: I would not blame all universities. Being in university administration now for almost a decade, I can testify that often there is willingness on the university side.
But universities are also subject to a wider institutional framework in which every innovation, every change, needs to go through several levels of approvals. Quite often, bottlenecks lie in that field. So, even when universities have the will, they are constrained by the framework surrounding them.
Of course, quiet life behaviour is always easier, when you can go with the flow as long as it goes. But if you want to be agile, in particular if you are pressured by some external circumstances and you need to survive first and then build your competitiveness, then I would say universities become innovative.
Studyportals: What areas of innovation do you see in universities today?
Prof. Nebojša Stojcic: First of all, something that is definitely changing, and that we are increasingly witnessing, is the duration of the cycles. Previously, it was quite common to have three-year or five-year cycles from the moment you enrol students until they graduate. Nowadays, what we are witnessing in several areas, for example in computing, marine sciences, and I would say even in economics these days, is demand for shorter and shorter cycles.
We are all slowly moving towards micro-credentials. I am currently assisting universities in several countries all over the world through one of our research centres here, and they are interested in developing micro-credentials.
The other thing is that universities are increasingly expanding their offer of lifelong learning, because demand for knowledge does not stop once you get your diploma.
Then there is probably an increasing need for skills, capabilities, and competencies outside the core curriculum, what we often call soft skills. This is increasingly penetrating programmes: self-leadership, communication, and all these things that help us navigate through daily business activities.
There is also demand for online learning. It is challenging, but also exciting, both synchronous and asynchronous learning. The market you are communicating with is scattered all over the world, particularly if you are talking about PhDs, micro-credentials, or lifelong learning programmes.
Your audience includes people who cannot physically devote a month, two months, or three months to sitting in your classroom. They want to access content and communicate with you on the go. That is challenging because it requires a lot of adjustment to maintain the quality of education. It also requires a different set of competencies to animate students, maintain integrity, and be efficient in delivery.
Why alternative study destinations, like Croatia, are gaining international attention
Studyportals: What about countries that are not among the most popular international student destinations? Should smaller universities use different approaches to attract students?
Prof. Nebojša Stojcic: I come from a small university, and I had the privilege and opportunity to pioneer some internationalisation activities here. We are special because we are in a region that was hit by negative demographic trends in past years and by overtourism.
Dubrovnik is a major tourism destination and one of the famous film locations as well, which is attractive if you are a tourist, but challenging if you are a university in such surroundings.
I would say that such universities are really at a crossroads because their conventional business models no longer work. There are questions about whether we need such a dispersed network of smaller universities, in particular in smaller countries, and financial sustainability in the higher education sector is also a big thing.
I would say that such universities are really at a crossroads because their conventional business models no longer work.
What we need is opening up to the world. Internationalisation is a big thing for universities like ours. But at the same time, there is something else that I am personally advocating, and that is to move away, to some extent, from a teaching-dominated profile.
I am in favour of the view that smaller universities, and universities in countries like Croatia, also need to build their research profile more strongly and position themselves as research-oriented universities.
That has several benefits. On the one hand, it increases your international visibility on the research side. At the same time, it allows you to provide your prospective and current students with frontier knowledge. It also offsets the negative financial effects of trends like demography, or any other reason that might result in lower numbers of students.
So, being innovative in trying to find the way of your existence, being innovative in communicating with your audience, and finding markets where there is demand for your students, that is important.
Being innovative in trying to find the way of your existence, being innovative in communicating with your audience, and finding markets where there is demand for your students, that is important.
Studyportals: How did the University of Dubrovnik respond to those pressures?
Prof. Nebojša Stojcic: When we started thinking about this a decade ago, Dubrovnik was all over the news as a destination hit by overtourism. There was no housing for students, and costs were skyrocketing even for our staff.
We decided to restructure the university along two axes. One was strengthening the research profile, and the other was opening to the world. I am happy to say that now we succeeded in both of these.
Maybe teaching is the more important one here. We were able to offset the negative domestic trends by going all over the world and now having students from four continents here. So, that is one way of being innovative when pressure comes to your door.
Studyportals: How did you convince international students to choose Dubrovnik? What was the hook?
Prof. Nebojša Stojcic: It was a combination of factors and a combination of the right people in the right places.
What we started with was our international recruitment department raising the visibility of the university in different parts of the world through our own efforts and through intermediaries. That helped us to get heard.
Our advantage, in that sense, was probably that many people know Dubrovnik. That is one thing. Another thing is that when the first students started coming from different parts of the world, we wanted them to feel at home.
Our advantage, in that sense, was probably that many people know Dubrovnik. That is one thing. Another thing is that when the first students started coming from different parts of the world, we wanted them to feel at home.
So, we paid equal attention to providing their support network here, a combination of our staff and other students, to allow them to integrate fast and to know that they are welcome here and that they are wanted here.
That is when word-of-mouth effects also started building. We now see students coming not only through our own effort, but also on the recommendation of some previous generations.
It was a long journey. It was difficult. At some moments, it felt hopeless, struggling with administration, not just university administration, and sorting out all the bureaucratic hurdles. But looking back at it, I would say it was worth it.
Studyportals: Is this opening up to international students a wider trend in Croatia, or was Dubrovnik different?
Prof. Nebojša Stojcic: We were probably different because we are in the part of the country that, until a couple of years ago, although it is mainland, was effectively functioning as an island. We were surrounded by borders on all sides. Now we have this new bridge, which sort of removes that.
We are also a city that is relatively distant from all the others, and has the highest costs of living in the country, which are not attractive things when you talk with students. So, we were among the first to move more strongly in that direction.
Nowadays, other universities are also picking up along the same path, but the pace differs because everybody has their own priorities. Internationalisation is something that is very high on the policy agenda, something that these days is debated a lot, and it is gradually developing all over the country.
Studyportals: Did opening up to international students change your curricula?
Prof. Nebojša Stojcic: Over the years, as we learned about the interests of our students, we did make some modifications to existing programmes. But it also required us to strengthen all side activities that maybe were not needed at first.
For example, with students coming from different countries, there was a need to think about how we enable these students to get in touch with prospective employers. How do we enable them to get apprenticeships, especially because in summer they go home? So, we needed to help them in that way as well.
With students coming from different countries, there was a need to think about how we enable these students to get in touch with prospective employers. How do we enable them to get apprenticeships, especially because in summer they go home? So, we probably needed to help them in that way as well.
There was also a change in programmes that required our teachers to adjust to managing classrooms with 20 or 30 nationalities. That is a big thing, a big transition, because it is not the same when everybody does not find the same jokes funny. So, you need to maintain the atmosphere in that classroom.
I would say we were adapting along the way. Some programmes were introduced partly by listening to what the international market needs, more than what the Croatian economic profile probably demands. But most of the minor changes, introducing a course here and there, were induced by changes in our student cohort.
