Faculty of Political Science of Zagreb University is the oldest political science educational and research institution in this part of Europe and the only programme of political science in The Republic of Croatia.
Faculty of Political Science of Zagreb University was founded by the Parliament of the People’s Republic of Croatia on February 23, 1962. In November of the same year political science program enrolled its first students. At the time, the Faculty was the first academic institution of this kind in the communist Eastern Europe and right from the beginning it operated as a research and higher education institution within the University of Zagreb, equal to other faculties of the University. Essential element of the Faculty development was its academic autonomy which enabled it to weather political pressures and power swings within the regime. In 1971 a two year journalism schools was launched in parallel to political science program and it soon became a four year university program in journalism.
Generations of political science and journalism graduates have earned their BA, MA. and PhD degrees at the Faculty of Political Science, among them current academic and high school lecturers, scholars, government ministers and members of parliament, mayors, diplomats, journalists, publishers, media analysts and PR experts.
As the oldest Faculty of Political Science in Central, Eastern and South-East Europe, offering political science program since 1962 and journalism programs since 1971, Faculty of Political Science is an academic institution whose mission is acquisition and transfer of knowledge about Croatian state and politics, society, media and its international environment.
Through its research, educational and public activities, the Faculty promotes democratic values, institutions and political culture and offers its academic expertise to the public in the process of public policy development and implementation and making of collective decisions. Evidence based policy making has become even more important since Croatia joined the EU, and the Faculty of Political Science, along with other University entities, sees it as its mission to contribute to these processes.
Since academic year 2005/2006 political science and journalism programs have been reorganized according to Bologna model into undergraduate and graduate programs. The Faculty also offers 11 postgraduate specialist MA programs. Faculty also has an integral doctoral program in political science.
