The needs and expectations of students in higher education: a new view on the management of educational institutions

Abstrakt

A student is the main beneficiary of the educational service provided by a university.
The university, being an educational institution, is subject to formal and legal provisions that define its functioning. Legislator's provisions regulate the main requirements that higher education institutions must meet, and their clarification is constituted by internal legal acts established in the university depending on its type, strategy or development policy as well as the subject and object resources of the university in close and further surroundings. Taking into account the student's needs and expectations is a very important issue, decisive for the quality of the university's work in the utilitarian and investment dimensions. The long-term policy of creating conditions conducive to the development of the student's potential in many dimensions of his/her existence (satisfying developmental needs) may bring results for raising the culture of quality of higher education. The existing system of services provided by the university is unclear, disordered and, above all, does not have the characteristics of an individualized approach to the student. The fragmentation of services causes organizational chaos and disorientation of the recipient. Case Management may be an alternative to the system that functions in the way described above. The idea consists of two stages: the diagnosis of the student's needs and expectations and an individualized plan of help in achieving the goals of education by satisfying the needs in multidimensional development lasting the whole life.