Prof. Ivan Koprić is a full professor with tenure at the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb. He was born on 6 January 1965 in Vrbovec, where he completed his elementary and high school education. He is a Croatian citizen. Koprić enrolled in the Faculty of Law at the University of Zagreb in 1982 and graduated in 1987, fulfilling his military service during the 1983/84 academic year. During his studies, he received the Rector’s Award twice for his papers on “Victim Psychology and Evaluation in Criminal Law” (1985) and “Communication and Bureaucratization of Society” (1987). He was a member of the editorial board of the student magazine “Pravnik” from 1985 to 1987.
After completing his studies, he worked as a corporate lawyer in the legal department of PIK Vrbovec-Meat Industry from 1987 to 1990. Koprić began his academic career at the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb on 1 September 1990 as a junior researcher at the Department of Administrative Sciences. He progressed to assistant on 1 September 1994, assistant professor on 28 June 2000, associate professor on 29 October 2003, full professor on 15 January 2008, and has held the position of full professor with tenure since 15 January 2013. Koprić is registered in the Register of Scientists of the Ministry of Science, Education, and Sports of the Republic of Croatia under registration number 174790.
In the academic years 2001/02 and 2002/03, he served as Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Law in Zagreb. hHe was the secretary of the Postgraduate Studies in Administrative-Political Sciences from September 1995 to December 2001, and from the academic year 2005/06 to 2012/13, Koprić headed the Institute for Public Law and Public Administration. Since the 2007/08 academic year, he has led the Department of Administrative Science. From 16 December 2011 to 15 December 2015, he was head of the Study Centre for Public Administration and Public Finance. Between 2011 and 2015, he also headed one of the postgraduate doctoral study programmes in Public Law and Public Administration. From October 2004 to September 2007, he was head of the Administrative Department at the Social Polytechnic in Zagreb and served as its Dean from January 2007 to December 2011. From 2006 to 2010, he headed the postgraduate interdisciplinary university specialist study programme in Public Administration at the University of Zagreb. Since 2010 he has been a member of the Council of the postgraduate interdisciplinary specialist study programmes in City Management and Public Administration, both at the University of Zagreb.
Prof. Koprić completed his postgraduate studies in legal sciences with excellent success. On 30 June1994, he defended his master’s thesis titled “The Impact of Administrative Organization Structure on Communication” and on 14 July 1999 he defended his doctoral dissertation titled “Interdependence of Structure and Communication in Administrative Organisations” both at the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb.
He has been the President of the Institute for Public Administration since 2008, having been a member of its Secretariat from 2000 to 2008, and a member since its founding in 1997.
Prof. Koprić has been a regular member of the Academy of Legal Sciences of Croatia since its founding in 2001, joining its Scientific Council in 2006 and becoming President of the Council in 2013.
Prof. Koprić has been a member of the Scientific Council for State Administration, Judiciary, and Rule of Law of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts since 2004, presenting nine papers on public administration reform and modernization. He joined the Croatian Political Science Association and the International Political Science Association (IPSA) in 2009, serving on the Executive Committees of Research Committees 05 (Comparative Studies on Local Government and Politics) and 32 (Public Policy and Administration) from 2012 to 2018. He is also a member of the European Regional Science Association, its Croatian section, and the International Academy of Political & Administrative Sciences and Future Studies in Mexico.
As editor-in-chief of the international scientific journal “Croatian and Comparative Public Administration” since 2005, he has edited eleven volumes. He has been on the editorial boards of several other scientific journals, including “Pravnik,” “Review of Social Policy,” “Lex localis,” “Yearbook of the Academy of Legal Sciences of Croatia,” and “Riesed, Revista Internacional de Estudios Sobre Sistemas Educativos.” He is the Editor-in-Chief of the book series “Contemporary Public Administration,” launched in 2002 with 29 books published to date.
Prof. Koprić has led and participated in over 40 scientific and policy projects, about half of which were international. He has delivered over 160 presentations and invited lectures at scientific conferences, primarily abroad. He has authored or co-authored more than 20 books, over 110 scientific papers, and more than 180 professional and other papers, many of which were published internationally. He also writes columns for print media and blog posts for “Administratio Publica,” and has appeared in numerous radio and television broadcasts.
Prof. Koprić has supervised 12 doctoral dissertations, 4 master’s theses, 14 specialist postgraduate papers, and over 160 undergraduate final papers. He teaches in the study programme of law, at the Social Work Study Centre, at the Study Centre for Public Administration and Public Finance, and has also taught in the Political Science and Journalism study programmes. Prof. Koprić has taught in various postgraduate programmes in Croatia and Slovenia. He is a member of the Board and a teacher in the international doctoral programme “Human Rights, Society, and Multilevel Governance” (Universities of Padua and Athens, Faculty of Law in Zagreb, and Western Sydney University).
He has been a leader or member of several expert working groups for the preparation of strategies or laws of the Government of the Republic of Croatia and relevant ministries. From 2000 to 2004, he was an examiner in state professional exams. Prof. Koprić serves as expert for the European Commission, UNDP, and OECD-Sigma in the fields of public administration, human resource management, and administrative law, and has worked on public administration reform projects for other international organizations (UN, World Bank, GIZ, ReSPA, and others). He was appointed as an expert for the accreditation of higher education institutions and study programmes by the Ministry of Education and Sports of Montenegro in 2012, participating in the accreditation and re-accreditation of several study programmes in public administration in Slovenia, Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Prof. Koprić was an external member of the Committee for the Constitution, Rules of Procedure, and Political System of the Croatian Parliament from 2008 to 2011 and from 2012 to 2015. He was a member of the Council of the Open Government Partnership initiative for two terms from 2012, the National Commission for the Implementation of Decentralization and Reform of Local and Regional Self-Government from 2012 to 2015, and the Governing Council of the State School for Public Administration from 2012. He was a member of the Ethics Commission for the elections to the Croatian Parliament in 2015. Koprić is a periodic scientific advisor to the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia. He has held and continues to hold other public duties and has been a member of other working bodies of the government and various ministries. Koprić is a member of the Council of the Institute Alternativa in Podgorica, Montenegro, and has been a member of other expert and professional bodies abroad.
He was awarded the prestigious international “Alena Brunovska” Award in 2016 by NISPAcee, the network of schools and institutes of public administration in Central and Eastern Europe, for his achievements in teaching excellence, pedagogical work, and contributions to practice and applied research in public administration. Prof. Koprić was the president of the international organizing committee of the 24th NISPAcee Annual Conference “Spreading Standards, Building Capacities: European Administrative Space in Progress,” held in Zagreb from 19-21 May 2016. Prof. Koprić has organized numerous other international scientific conferences.
Prof. Koprić is fluent in English, German, Slovenian, and Macedonian.
