The quality of higher education and human capital are terms often used in modern economy literature especially in education theory and theory of human capital. These terms are the main subject of this dissertation. One of the main goals of this dissertation was to conceptually define the relationship between quality of education in terms of the socio-economic and human capital development. The analysis of economic and social development provides an insight into the standards of living which shows the quality of life of the inhabitants of a certain country. Economic growth measured by gross domestic production (GDP) served as a key indicator of social progress for many years. However, the income should not be the sole indicator of the quality of life of a certain country inhabitants because the quality of life is far more than an income. The general, global, demographic and other trends are the development indicators which put more emphasis on non-economic components of development, such as the ones related to human life and its quality mostly determinate by health and education. After these components comes income. Through dissertation some of the most important measures of economic development, such as the index of human development and index of economic knowledge, are presented and analysed. Special emphasis through the dissertation has been placed on the subjective perception of quality in higher education from the students perspective. Such researches have a significant contribution to the understanding of the real situation and the position of the society. It also provides supplement and corrective conclusions about the quality of education that comes from objective indicators observations. Macroeconomic research in Bosnia and Herzegovina was conducted in order to research the perceptions of students towards higher education and its quality and to establish and evaluate the quality of higher education. Data analysis resulted in the general public - policy proposals for line ministries and state institutions in the field of education and many other abettors in order to develop and increase awareness of the importance of developing human capital and lifelong learning needs, as is the practice in developed countries. The proposals came out of primary research and from the presented theoretical frameworks that could be guidelines on the way to improve the quality of education, which should ultimately have implications for the labour market and competitiveness increase. The dissertation contains seven main chapters structured as specified in the work disposition. The introductory chapter, after the initial consideration, highlights the purpose, goals, research hypotheses and the scientific contribution of the doctoral dissertation. It also provides an overview of the thesis structure. The second chapter describes education as a socio - economic development factor, where education is described in the context of the modern economy based on the knowledge. The new economic theories that are linking science, education and social development have significantly changed the perception of education. Although higher education has always been in the public interest, now, that interest is even stronger and bigger and interest groups are changing their expectations of education and they expect even more than they expected in the past. That is a reflection of overall social movements and their dynamics. The highly educated workforce and the human capital are very important for the realization of knowledge-based economy which is highlighted in the third chapter. This section discusses the relationship between economic and social development and quality of human capital. A quality education system participates in increase of the competitive advantage of the national economy. In fact, it ensures the quality of human capital as the main factor of progress. In order to get a better insight in "development" of the economy of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is closely connected with the sector of higher education, relevant data has been used. Bosnia and Herzegovina is lagging behind the developed economies of the world in terms of the society knowledge. That is even evident without this work. However, the goal of this work is to see how big these lags are and what are further perspectives of Bosnia and Herzegovina in terms of future development on its way to the society knowledge. In order to get a better insight into the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a comparison of the development of society knowledge in Bosnia and Herzegovina with selected groups from various regions has been presented. In order to compare the development of society knowledge, indexes and indicators of development of the World Economic Forum, Eurostat and the World Bank have been used. The fourth chapter describes the basic characteristics of science and research activities and their qualities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The system of higher education and science in Bosnia and Herzegovina is in a constant phase of reforms ever since the war ended, and it faced a series of difficulties. The constitutional arrangement of Bosnia and Herzegovina, different policies arising from different legal regulation and the lack of harmonization of national education at the entity and state level have lead to different attitudes toward higher education and scientific activities. Legal arrangements are various. Higher education and science financing is done in different ways. A large number of teaching staff has left the country. The academic community in Bosnia and Herzegovina has the task to place higher education and scientific research closer to area of higher education in order to create competition in the European market of higher education. Market factors of higher education development in Bosnia and Herzegovina are described in chapter five. Higher education demand in Bosnia and Herzegovina was analyzed using the data on student population. Higher education institutions are the ones that provide the offer of higher education Bosnia and Herzegovina. The demand and supply have been analyzed according to administrative apropos territorial units. So they provide reviews, features and analysis of data of the entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Brčko District of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The reason for such approach is to better understand the overall situation, and the ability to better forecast future trends in this market. Another aim of this approach is to point out certain peculiarities of higher education in Bosnia and Herzegovina which are essentially determined and formed a sample of this research doctoral dissertation. The sixth chapter presents the results of primary research. The perception of students regarding the role and importance of quality in higher education has been researched. The research was conducted on a sample of 899 students, within 14 higher education institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The students from public and private universities and students from both entities: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republic of Serbian have been tested. The final seventh chapter refers to the conclusion.