Partners

The Zagreb School of Economics and Management was founded in 2002 in Croatia. The business school provides undergraduate education in Economics and Management; Business Law, Mathematics and also provides graduate education, MBA degree in 11 specializations, ranging from finance, marketing, accounting, management, human resources, marketing, etc.

ZSEM is focused on providing high-quality undergraduate, graduate and doctoral programs. The business school has over 150 partner universities in more than 55 countries worldwide, allowing students to gain international experience during their studies, or even enrol into a double degree program at their graduate level.

ZSEM is Croatia’s best business school according to Eduniversal’s global ranking. For many years, ZSEM has been educating Croatia’s future economic and business experts and has become a center for thought and discussion on contemporary economic and business issues in Croatia and the wider CE region. With more than 1,000 students and more than 2,800 alumni, ZSEM’s community is continuously growing. Every major corporation and institution in Croatia has employed ZSEM graduates, while our alumni have also made their mark on society by becoming entrepreneurs and researchers.

In 2013, the Zagreb School of Economics and Management became an AACSB accredited business school. This enabled it to enter the exclusive top 5% of the most outstanding business schools in the world. The accreditation rearmed the status of ZSEM as the leading business school in Croatia. Founded in 1916, the Association of Advanced Collegiate Schools of Business is the longest-serving international institution with the mission to advance quality management education worldwide through accreditation, thought leadership, and value-added services. It is worth noting that the exclusive club of accredited institutions includes renowned universities from across the globe, such as Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and many others. The Zagreb School of Economics and Management has passed the stringent criteria imposed on the best schools in the world. Six years later, in 2019, ZSEM achieved the prestigious AACSB reaccreditation.

ZSEM offers high quality programs, which can be adapted to all students who participate in sports professionally or regularly and cannot attend regular classes due to their training schedules and sporting careers. Due to this, ZSEM has an e-learning platform, which is a ideal for high quality learning and for athletes who are easily able to catch up on missed lectures or content. ZSEM currently has approx. 40 athletes who do participate in different sports: 25 categorized as athletes, 15 state champions and a few medal winners from world and European championships, as well as the Universiade. Around 5% of ZSEM students does sports on daily basis. ZSEM students represented Croatia in the last two winter and summer Universiades, as well as Olympic games in London, in 2012.

ZSEM has an active Students’ sports association gathering more than 350 students who share love for sports. Through this association, ZSEM students have participated in numerous competitions and have won many medals.

Learn more at https://www.zsem.hr/en/

The Stockholm School of Economics (SSE) was founded in 1909 and it is the only private business school in Sweden. Located in the heart of Stockholm, the school has about 2000 students and all programs are given in English. For the past 20 years, SSE has been ranked as the best business school in the Nordic region by the Financial Times.

A central part of SSE’s competitive advantage is its unique relationship with the private sector. The Corporate Partnership program has over 110 companies and includes large multinational companies such as Atlas Copco, H&M, IKEA and Ericsson but also global professional services companies such as McKinsey, Goldman Sachs and the big 4 auditing firms, Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PWC.

During the last 10 years, SSE has transformed into a truly international business school. What used to be a “A Swedish Business School with International Outreach” is nowadays “An International Business School with Swedish Roots”. Except for international recognition in rankings (the MSc in International Business was ranked nr 7 in Financial Times’ global ranking of Master in Management Programs in 2020), SSE has also been named the most international university in Sweden. In terms of accreditation, SSE was the first business school in Sweden to achieve the EQUIS accreditation in 1999. In addition, SSE is a member of CEMS, Global Network for Advanced Management and the European University of Social Sciences (CIVECA).

Founded in 2015, The Center for Sports and Business (CSB) has over 40 faculty members where affiliate members come from schools such as Stanford University, Imperial College London, Singapore Management University and University of Sidney. In addition to the strong research profile, CSB has strategic partnerships with the Swedish Olympic Committee and large sports such as ice hockey, football, golf, skiing, parasport, trot racing, equestrian and the mass-sport event organisation A Swedish Classic. Combining academic rigor and practical relevance, the ambition of CSB is to be a world-class research center focusing on “Rigorance”.

Learn more at https://www.hhs.se/en/

WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management is an internationally oriented, privately funded business school based in Vallendar and Düsseldorf. It has an outstanding national and international reputation leading it to be the most renowned German business school. This excellent standard has been certified through accreditations from AACSB, EQUIS, and FIBAA as well as through leading positions in national and international rankings. WHU students profit from a large international network of over 200 partner universities, 160 companies, and 4700 alumni in 67 countries.

On WHU’s two campuses, faculty, students, and staff enjoy working and studying in an environment that promotes diversity and internationalization. More than 50 faculty members research and teach at WHU in the fields of Management, Finance and Accounting, Economics, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Marketing and Sales, and Supply Chain Management. WHU‘s high level of research competence is the result of a focus on three essential research principles: Quality, internationality, and application for teaching and practice.

WHU’s academic degree programs and executive education programs provide excellent educational opportunities for every career stage, supporting diversity and ensuring equal opportunities for everybody.

While constantly expanding, the school currently has around 1.700 students in its degree programs, more than 1000 executive education participants, and over 300 international short-term programs participants each year. Engaged in over 30 clubs, WHU’s student body strongly contributes to WHU’s intellectual, cultural, and social commitment. WHU‘s values and positioning define the school’s renowned identity. Its values of community, cosmopoliteness, entrepreneurship, and excellence go hand-in-hand with its positioning of showing courage and commitment always. The atmosphere characterized by openness, curiosity, diversity, and equal opportunities is of the utmost importance for WHU.

As the academic partner for leaders in the sports business, WHU's Center for Sports and Management aims to positively impact the future of sports by inspiring, developing, and connecting excellent people. Research and teaching activities center around future readiness, corporate diversification strategies, the impact of technologies on sports, and stadium economics. CSM faculty also runs the SPOAC - Sports Business Academy by WHU, providing managers with a skill-/ mindset, and access to a network that makes the difference in the sports business.

Learn more at www.whu.edu and www.whu.edu/en/faculty/entrepreneurship-and-innovation-group/sports-and-management

The European University Sports Association is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation working on developing university sports, organising sports events, carrying out sports activities and projects and providing education in sports at the university level. Founded in 1999, the association is the governing body for university and college sport in Europe, and unites 46 national university sports member associations.

EUSA is the licensing body for the European Universities Championships and European Universities Games, which are organised in alternating years, with over 4000 participants representing over 400 universities taking part in EUSA sports events each year. Having cumulatively engaged over 50 000 participants in over 150 sports competitions in the last two decades, EUSA spearheads the organisation of university sports events for student-athletes across Europe.

EUSA and its Institute are active not only in sports events, but in the fields of education and social responsibility as well.

Conferences, conventions, seminars and workshops are regularly organised to keep members updated and informed, while providing a platform for networking, transfer of knowledge, sharing of experience and good governance.

EUSA through its Institute is a proud partner in various projects and initiatives, receiving support from the European Commission, Council of Europe and other institutional bodies. Social responsibility projects EUSA is and has been involved in cover, amongst others, equality and inclusion, volunteering, health-enhancing physical activities, dual career, anti-doping, safeguarding and sustainability.

Through collaboration with various partners in these projects, EUSA and its Institute are pleased to contribute to the development of university sport and sport in general on the European level in various sector, both on and off the field.

For more information, please visit www.eusa.eu and you are also invited to follow us on social media under the handle @eusaunisport.

HRVATSKI OLIMPIJSKI ODBOR (in English: CROATIAN OLYMPIC COMMITTEE) or NOC of Croatia for short from Zagreb, Croatia. The NOC of Croatia is the highest non-governmental national sports association. The NOC of Croatia is joined by the national sports federations, the sports federations in the counties and in the City of Zagreb and other federations whose activities are of particular importance for the development of sport and Olympic Movement in the Republic of Croatia. In order to fulfil its mission, the NOC of Croatia cooperates with state agencies in the Republic of Croatia. The NOC of Croatia also cooperates with non-governmental bodies that cooperate with and are associated with the NOC of Croatia's activities.

The NOC of Croatia is a member of the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC), European Olympic Committees (EOC), International Committee for Mediterranean Games (ICMG), European Sports NGO (ENGSO), International Fair Play Committee (IFPC) and the European Fair Play Movement (EFPM).

The duties of the NOC of Croatia are defined by the National Sports Act (Sports Act). The following are the tasks of NOC of Croatia that can be directly linked to the objectives of this project proposal: - promotion of sport in the Republic of Croatia, - participation in the proposal and realisation of measures related to the improvement and development of sport, - promotion of sport relations of the Republic of Croatia with other countries, - establishment of better relations with other nations as well as relations between athletes and other participants in sport events, - participation in the organisation and implementation of scientific and development projects in sport.

The NOC of Croatia is a complex organisation with a high and narrow hierarchical structure, suitable for the complex and diverse tasks that require different types of skills and a level of supervision of middle management.

A number of employees specialize in the administrative preparation of athletes' participation in major sporting events. The organizational size is 56 employees. The staff and volunteers on the board have expertise in sports governance, sports science and research, strategic management, legal affairs, etc. The NOC of Croatia is certified for ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System and it has been involved in good governance projects for a long time. Its activities underline the adherence to the principles of good governance not only within the organization but also with other organizations such as National Federation.

Related to the MLEA project it is important to emphasized that NOC of Croatia, proposed the "National Program for the development of Sports Career and Post-Sports Career 2014 – 2020”, which National Council for Sport approved in 2014. Great support in the implementation of the dual career (DC) actions is given to the CROOC by European Olympic Committee (EOC) (financial support for the DC projects) and International Olympic Committee (IOC) (workshops for athletes, etc.). In Croatia, there are some specific educational regulations in universities and secondary schools and reward mechanisms, as well as assistance and employment programs. The National Olympic Committee of Croatia is signed the agreement with Rector Council from Republic Croatia and Croatian Academic Sport Association (2015) regarding DC for categorized athletes as well as for categorized para-athletes. One of the results of the agreement with Rector Council is the document: "Regulation on the study of student athletes at universities in the Republic of Croatia" (May, 2016).

Learn more at https://www.hoo.hr/en

The National Olympic Committee Bosnia and Herzegovina (NOCBiH) is a sport umbrella institution, which was founded on June 4th 1992. After the founding and the appearance of sportsmen and sportswomen of our country in the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, it received an official recognition from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which made its decision at the session of the Executive Committee in Monaco, on September 24th 1993. After the establishment and the international recognition, OCBiH was registered December 8th 2002 into the Ministry of Justice's registry as the primary sports organization, in which National sports federations are joined. With the registration, as well as with the signing of the Lausanne Declaration on Doping in Sport on June 28th 1999, OCBiH was constituted as a Paramount sports body in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

OCBiH, as a member of the International Olympic Committee, is required to respect the rules of the Olympic Charter, IOC Statues, IOC Code of Ethics, World Anti-Doping Code, Law on Associations and Foundations of BiH and Law on sport of BiH.

Apart from numerous implemented projects funded by the IOC and EOC, the OC BiH has started its successful implementation of Erasmus + sport projects since 2015, and has so far successfully implemented 4 Erasmus + sport projects, 2 IPA Cross Border Cooperation Projects and is currently implementing 3 Erasmus + sport projects and 1 IPA Cross Cooperation Project. In summary the OCBiH's work covers the segments of sports, international relations, marketing, arts and culture administration and finances, and is fully diverse in its work with different stakeholders, from athletes, coaches, international and domestic sport organisations, sport federations and clubs, sponsors, media and society in general.

As a non-governmental, apolitical and non-profitable organisation which places BH athletes at the heart of its operations, OC BiH works diligently on improving BH sport system, providing equal chances for all to practice sport and is a protecter of Olympic Heritage and a memory of XIV Winter Olympic Games in Sarajevo.

Learn more at https://okbih.ba/en/about-us/noc-bih-members

Olympic Committee of Slovenia–Association of Sports Federations (OCS-ASF) is umbrella non-governmental sport organization in Slovenia. Its mission is to create better country trough sport and the Olympic movement. It is not only connected to elite sport, but also to sport for all with high awareness on the importance of sport at the local level. OCS-ASF goal is to develop Slovenian sport in all of its forms, together with OCS-ASF member federations, governmental and economy support. Activities and programs on Dual Career, Education and Employment of Athletes are important part of the OCS-ASF support for athletes and their lifelong development. For the last 10 years, NOC Slovenia gained experiences with the European Erasmus+ projects, first as a project partners and later as a lead partner (e.g. Athletes friendly education). The OCS-ASF successfully implemented National guidelines for promoting Dual Career of athletes and as partner participated to several programs on good governance, safeguarding sport from irregularity, and protecting athletes from harassment, abuses and manipulation. In 2020, NOC Slovenia established Athletes Career Centre; therefore, we are looking forward to the cooperation in the MLEA consortium and to further develop athletes support mechanism in the field of employment of athletes.

Learn more at https://www.olympic.si/

The Olympic Committee of Serbia (NOC of Serbia) is the leading non-governmental and non-profit making sports organization in Serbia. NOC of Serbia represents an umbrella organization of 42 national Olympic sports federations.

The NOC of Serbia nourishes and promotes fundamental principles and values. The main field of acting is sport, where its social dimension is considered as a powerful tool for promotion and development of the key ideas and messages.

NOC of Serbia works closely with leading global sports organizations such as the IOC, EOC, ANOC, ICMG and ENGSO, National Olympic Committees (NOCs), sport faculties, educational and research institutions and large companies.

The NOC of Serbia specializes in wide and diverse activities such as: • Demonstration and implementation of non-formal education skills and education through sport; • Organization of conferences, trainings, youth sport camps, varied programs and workshops; • Support and empowerment of youth participation; • Development of dual career programmes for athletes. Our core competences include: • Multi-disciplinary team with excellent organizational skills and diverse experience in organization of multisport events; • Promotion and development of volunteering in sport; • Network and experience through NOC’s working groups on diverse topics such as: healthy well-being, women and sport, environmental sustainability, Olympic education, culture and legacy, sport for all, youth participation and cooperation with European sport institutions. • Recognition and empowerment of grassroots sports and activities.

We consider sport as an ideal tool of promotion of right values and spreading messages.

Learn more at https://oks.org.rs/