There are about 150 students from different parts of Croatia studying at the Department of Teacher Studies in Gospić. Students participate in various departmental and other activities, contributing to the quality of teaching, cultural, sports, entertainment and humanitarian life in our city. By their involvement in the evaluation of the study program, individual courses and teachers, they contribute to the quality of the study program and are indicators of future work guidelines. In accordance with the Statute of the University of Zadar, student representatives participate in the work of the Department's Expert Council. Each academic year there is one representative from each study year who has more intensive contact with the departmental administration and mentors. The representative participates in monthly joint departmental meetings to discuss all topics relevant to the quality of student life, study conditions, teaching, extracurricular activities, etc. Every study year has a mentor from the ranks of teachers. Students are regularly informed of all study related information through the bulletin board, the Department’s website and/or through the Merlin system.
The Department’s students are highly active in extracurricular activities as well as in volunteer and humanitarian work. Their volunteer work at the Science Festival, Open Door Days, University Fair, Our Children Society, the Gospić branch and the Beekeepers Association, in which they participate in working with children with disabilities is particularly productive. The local Volunteer Center in Gospić regularly organizes student lectures, which has resulted in increased volunteer engagement in volunteer activities.
The students of the Department are active in a series of workshops, interdisciplinary projects, fine arts and music events, research for graduate work, fieldwork, stage and media culture, participation in scientific and professional meetings, a series of literary meetings and occasional lectures organized at our institution or in other cultural and educational institutions in our city. The aim of such activities is to promote positive values, to stimulate the teaching, artistic, scientific and professional potential of students, as well as to raise awareness of the breadth of the cultural horizon of the teaching vocation for which they are being educated.
Students from the Department of Teacher Studies in Gospić have realized several international forms of mobility, through ERASMUS+ or through other programs. Every year, the staff of the Office for International Cooperation gives students an informational lecture on mobility programs at the University of Zadar. In addition, students are offered lectures on the Erasmus + project of civil society organizations, which has resulted in, among other things, a number of different forms of international student mobility.
The University Alumni Club was also established as a Department branch, with the aim of connecting all generations of students of teacher training in Gospić and predecessors of the Department in order to achieve mutual cooperation.
In addition to the usual teaching activities envisaged in the study program, the Department organizes suitable guest lectures for students and teachers in various fields of science and art, in order to improve teaching, scientific, artistic and professional work. The invited lectures encourage interdisciplinary studies and collaboration with students on project assignments.
In order to improve the quality of teaching, the Department regularly organizes fieldwork as part of the planned teaching activities from different courses, offering students the opportunity to learn about the contents of national landmarks, relevant teaching topics and also presents them with native cultural and natural heritage, which motivates them for direct learning and toward research-project work. Thus, students of the Department of Teacher Studies in Gospić, as part of courses in humanities and social fields, have visited a number of exhibitions in well-known Croatian museums and exhibition spaces (Klovićevi dvori, Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum of Ancient Glass), many theaters in Croatia (Croatian National Theater Zagreb, Croatian National Theater Zadar, Mala scena (Small Scene), Žar ptica (Firebird), Zadar Puppet Theater), watched cultural performances, traveled to the Ogulin Fairytale Festival, visited the cultural and historical complex of the City of Zadar, visited the Rector’s Palace, Croatian School Museum, Croatian Parliament, as well as the Institution for the Accommodation of Children with Special Needs in Knin, the Center for Education Vinko Bek, the Children’s Home in Nazorova and many others. Getting acquainted with the cultural and natural heritage of Lika has been realized through trips to a number of locations on Velebit and Plitvice Lakes. In the context of the fieldwork, students are introduced to the way the fieldwork is organized, principles of regional identity, and ways to integrate content from different courses as well as preparing different working materials.