REALISE YOUR POTENTIAL AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MARIBOR

With 16 faculties and more than 1,800 employees, the University of Maribor, Slovenia, is one of the biggest employers in the region with a significant concentration of knowledge, research and development potential.

With Slovenia's accession to the European Union the activities of the University of Maribor have become more integrated with European research and higher education. We provide countless opportunities for students, lecturers and researchers to co-operate in the international sphere, and our students have an excellent track record for excelling at international competitions and in European projects and competing for top jobs at home and abroad. Successful research work is undertaken within the framework of various European and national projects, which is confirmed by the quantity of publications and contributions to top international journals and the transfer of knowledge and technology to small and large companies.

Scientific and innovative environment
Our policy is to continually improve and expand our research work, thus stimulating and creating a scientific and innovative environment without parallel — creating, building on, transferring, applying and marketing knowledge.

The scientific park of the University of Maribor is the most important and demanding pillar of the innovative environment in the region and within the wider community. The scientific park will promote and manage the flow of knowledge and technology between the university, scientific–research institutions, companies and the market. Within the framework of the scientific park there will be centres of innovation and competence and technological platforms to establish connections between the R&D departments of local and foreign companies and the scientific-research laboratories of the university for which their exists mutual interest.

The scientific park of the University of Maribor will create an efficient environment for:

• The conception and development of joint research and development units of the university and industry
• The development and growth of high-tech spin-off companies from university incubators, which will further add to the development of the scientific park
• The development of other local and foreign R&D organisations, which will co-operate with the University of Maribor in supporting an innovative environment.

We help realise professional ambitions
In the area of higher education, the University of Maribor offers a wide range of reformed and new study programmes and disciplines at all levels. With excellent staff, state-of-the art information support, linking study with practice and constant monitoring of quality, we provide our students with such knowledge and competence to compete in and quickly enter the European jobs market. We are aware that in a knowledge-based society only graduates with real knowledge will gain employment contracts.

The inclusion of students in research work at the University of Maribor and in case studies in companies co-operating with members of the university improves the connection between education and the jobs market. Our university has established links between formal and practical training, which enable the acquisition of experience and easier and quicker inclusion in the jobs market. In planning tertiary education and lifelong learning courses, the University of Maribor uses as a basis international comparability and the needs of individual employers, which co-operate in the forming of offers and the process of education. We are aware people need to acquire practical knowledge, which will be assessed in the same way as formal education. In this way, we ensure that the percentage of our young graduates finding employment quickly continues to be extremely high.

Our university also co-operates with the Institute RS for Employment, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and other public institutions to keep our students informed of job openings and employment opportunities.

With respect to the globalisation of the labour market, the University of Maribor strives to better prepare young people for employment outside their home region and thus increase the geographic mobility of the workforce by offering a number of opportunities to study parts of courses at universities abroad and participate in student exchanges.

The established links between tertiary education at the University of Maribor and the economy (at regional, national and international levels), including the appropriate assessment of non-formal acquisition of knowledge, has led to a system of education that increases the employability of young people on completing their formal education.

With the aim of increasing flexibility on the jobs market, members of the University of Maribor have prepared a number of common study programmes so as to increase mobility between study programmes and increase the choice and interdisciplinary nature of our higher education offer.  Our programmes of training through participation in research projects and high level of mobility between study programmes means that our graduates attain a higher average level of education and are better equipped for faster, useful inclusion in the working environment.

Examples of good practice

• Many excellent examples of connecting faculties with practice, ie users
• Various forms of student care with mentors, tutors, etc
• Interconnections between members of the university and outside interdisciplinary common-study programmes, providing synergetic effects
• International orientation and recognition internationally (a growing number of foreign students and more student exchanges)
• A rich extra-curricular offer
• Employability of graduates and compatibility of their formal and actual knowledge.

Become a part of the University of Maribor
We are inviting foreign lecturers, scientists and researchers to join us in realising our goals; to become our collaborators or partners in international projects and programmes and actively engage in our research work. We also invite foreign students to join 26,000 other students at the University of Maribor and study with us.

Contact
Karolina Bucka MSc, the International and Interuniversity Co-operation Department. Tel: 00386-2-2355-347; Email: inter.center@uni-mb.si.