International Students Day

Education is the driving force of economic development in society

In the rapidly changing world, education is becoming an increasingly important driving force of economic development, thus an increasing number of young people decide to study at tertiary level.
Education reduces social inequality, increases productivity and affects personal development. One of the goals of the European development strategy is to increase the share of population aged 30–34 who have completed their tertiary education to 40% by 2020. 15  years ago a quarter of people in Slovenia aged 30–34 had tertiary education. The 40% target was achieved in 2013, when about half of the women and a third of men in Slovenia aged 30–34 had tertiary education. In 2017, the share of population with tertiary education was slightly over 46%.

The International Student Council in London declares 17 November the International Students' Day

17 November is the International Students' Day, a day that marks the students’ efforts for a democratic society, respect of human rights and better future of the young. In memory of the Nazi occupation of the Prague University and the deportation of over 1,200 students to concentration camps in 1939, in 1941 the International Student Council in London declared 17 November the International Students' Day.

The importance of education known already in the 20th century

In the second half of the 20th century, education was gaining importance and was becoming more easily accessible. In the 1950s about 6,000 students were studying in Slovenia. By 1990 their number increased to over 30,000. After Slovenia won independence, the number of students started to increase even more rapidly and it amounted to almost 116,000 in 2006: there were over 70,000 higher undergraduate students (90,000 if candidates for graduation are also taken into account). In addition, the number of students in vocational colleges and the number of postgraduate students  increased as well.

Among the young aged 19–24, nearly half of them are students

Since the academic year 2007/08, the number of students keeps decreasing each year, mostly due to demographic changes. In the academic year 2012/13, their number has been below 100,000 and it keeps decreasing. A few years later, in 2017/18, tertiary education included 76,534 persons which is almost 3,000 fewer students on annual level. Apart from that, in 2017/18 the share of young people aged 19–24 years decreased on annual level by almost 1 percentage point and amounted to 46.5%. This share was the highest in the academic year 2012/13 (49.9%). Nevertheless, the share of young people involved in tertiary education in Slovenia is still high and also higher than in most of the other EU Member States.

Female students not only do not select the same fields of study as male students, but they also outnumber them

In tertiary education, there are two basic distinctions in terms of gender inequality: horizontal and vertical separation.
Horizontal separation means that  women and men actually choose different fields of study. In the academic year 2017/18, 32.0% of all male students and 8.0% of all female students studied "Engineering, Manufacturing and Construction". In the field  "Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)” the situation was similar with 10.0% of all male and 1.2% of all female students. On the other hand, in the academic year 2014/15 in the field “Educational Sciences and Teacher Education” the enrolment of women was 15.0% and that of men 3.0%, while in the field “Health and Welfare” the share of women was 17.4% and that of men 7.5%. The distribution of both genders was almost levelled in the fields “Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries and Veterinary” with 4.0%, “Natural sciences, mathematics and statistics” with 6.0% and “Services” with 9.0% for both genders.

Vertical separation is also becoming a common concern as there are fewer men than women in tertiary education. According to 2017/18 data, 90.0% of all tertiary students were 19–29-year-olds. The probability of enrolment of women of these ages in tertiary education (34 %) was higher than in case of men (23%). In other words: among 76,534 students, 58.0% of them were women

Short-term student mobility is on the rise

Among all tertiary education students in the academic year 2017/18,  3,420 or 4.5% are mobile students, i.e. students who study in Slovenia and have a permanent residence abroad. These are mostly students of higher university and master study programs. Most (over 90.0%) come from European countries; among them the majority come from the countries of the former Yugoslavia (1,811) and the EU Member States (1,066). The share of mobile students is increasing: in the academic year 2014/15  2.6% of students with permanent residence abroad studied in Slovenia.

With Erasmus, students can perform part of their studies abroad

In addition to the enrolment of students abroad – which is in fact completion of the entire studies abroad and in 2016 it amounted to 2,675 – the so-called short-term study mobility is also increasing. This form of mobility enables students to perform part of the home study abroad (study exchange, practice). Study mobility provides to students not only the academic benefits, but also personal development (getting to know the cultures, languages) and consequently it improves the employability of the young. Within the European program  Erasmus, which allows students to complete part of tertiary studies abroad (the program lasts 3–12 months), in the academic year 2015/16 Slovenia sent 2,091 of its students (2.7%) on exchange or practice abroad, and accepted 2,599 foreign students (3.3%).