The social context in Croatia in which universities operate shows two dominant trends. Market orientation is being promoted as a response to globalization processes. Growing resistance and concern about this tendency brought initiatives to strengthen civil engagement in higher education. Since academic knowledge is increasingly expected to be based on real life circumstances and connected to practice, the need to strengthen civic engagement, social responsibility and active citizenship at universities is further stimulated. Requests are being made to bring university instructors and practitioners into closer relationships, expecting academic knowledge to directly improve living conditions in local communities and affect democracy and civil society development (Ostrander, 2004). Students should acquire knowledge, develop skills and opinions through active participation, which in turn develops their sense of active involvement in making political decisions and controlling its implementations. Many authors agree how active citizenship is the ideal contemporary society should aspire to (T.H.McLaughlin, D. Miller, C.Wilkins, R.Griffith, D. Heather, K. Faulks). The purpose of university’s civic mission is to enable the development of this ideal.
