Abstract:

The actual trends in enterprise risk management highlight the need to pay more attention to the enterprise risk management application and to be better prepared for the threats in the current business environment. This fact is confirmed also by the results of our own research focused on the issue of enterprise risk management carried out by the authors of the contribution, as well as from other worldwide surveys carried out by various organizations such as e.g. Institute Penomon, Enterprise Risk Management Initiative, CPA, AICP, Deloitte Institute, etc.) in 2017 – 2019. The actual trends point to the need to link theory with practice and the need to use software support in higher education at universities around the world. Universities should also provide better study programs in the field of risk management and prepare graduates more effectively for the needs of the practice.

In 2019 the authors of the paper realized the empiric survey based on the project: „Research of Risk Management in Enterprises in Slovakia to create a new study program Risk Management for the FBI University of Zilina“. The main goal of this survey was to assess study programs focused on enterprise risk management in European countries, i.e. Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Greece, Italy, Germany, Austria, the United Kingdom, France, Portugal, Ireland, Belgium, Spain, Holland, Slovakia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Russia. The empirical research was carried out using scientific methods: the framework analysis, the content analysis, the method of comparison and the synthesis method. The content analysis and framework analysis were applied to assess the diversity and significance (importance) of subjects in risk management study programs at universities in the European countries. The method of comparison was applied to the assessment of study programs in Slovakia and the European countries. The synthesis method was used to design the concept of the subjects of the new Risk Management study program.

The main aim of the paper is to present the results of the above-mentioned research and to propose the concept of a new study program at the Faculty of Security Engineering of the University of Žilina in Žilina (FSE UNIZA). The level of diversity and significance (importance) of subjects in risk management study programs at universities in the European countries were analysed and evaluated. Based on the achieved results, the concept of key subjects in the new study program Risk Management for the bachelor degree at the FSE UNIZA in Slovakia was proposed. The proposed concept of study subjects is completed by an extended application of software support in risk management education and respects world trends.

The contribution of the paper is a proposed concept of study program subjects that reflects the requirements of practice and respects global education trends. Its application will increase the quality of the educational process at the FSE UNIZA and will improve the opportunities of the graduates to find a job in Slovakia, too. The proposed solutions present a contribution for the FSE UNIZA to belong to the advanced European educational institutions through the quality of its educational process and address more potential students, too. The results of this paper are usable also for other universities with similar study programs in Slovakia and the European countries.

Keywords:

risk management, European countries, university, study programme, education, software support