Responsible Body

Ministry of Education and Sport (Ministrstvo za šolstvo in šport) Kotnikova 38, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia Phone: +386 1 478 42 00 Fax: +386 1 478 43 29 E-mail: gp.mss@gov.si Web Page: http://www.mszs.si
Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology (Ministrstvo za visoko šolstvo, znanost in tehnologijo) Trg OF 13, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia Phone: +386 1 478 46 00 Fax: +386 1 478 47 19 E-mail: gp.mvzt@gov.si Web Page: http://www.mvzt.gov.si/index.php?L=1

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Slovenia vs. EU - Employment

The educational structure of adults (25-64 years) is improving in Slovenia. Econometric analyses of how different factors affect economic growth highlight the role of the share of tertiary education graduates in the total population/employment, an area where Slovenia is still considerably behind the most advanced countries. Even with a rise in the share of tertiary education graduates in the population to 20.0% in 2005, Slovenia is only slowly catching up with the EU-25 average (22.8%), particularly with Scandinavian countries and even with Estonia and Latvia[1].

Slovenia's gap in the share of tertiary education graduates is fairly evenly spread by age groups – while the 35 to 39-year group has the narrowest gap relative to the EU-25 average, the 25 to 29-year group has the widest one, which indicates that people decide to study relatively late in Slovenia and also that it takes them a long time to complete their studies. But just like in other countries, the share of tertiary education graduates in the population in Slovenia drops with age. The average gap between the 25 to 34- and 55 to 64-year groups in OECD countries is 12 percentage points. The Slovenian figure is similar.

Table 2: Selected indicators from education and training

Sources: SORS, Eurostat, OECD, IMAD calculations.

Note: Indicators, sources and footnotes are specified in more detail in the Appendix.

Total public expenditure on education

Total public expenditure on education as a share of GDP is the main structural indicator measuring the level of investment in education used in international comparisons[2]. Total public expenditure on education[3] totalled 6.02% of GDP in 2003 (5.98% in 2002), which ranks Slovenia above the EU-25 average (Eurostat, 2002: 5.22%). Between 1995 and 2000 the shares of public expenditure on GDP generally fell in the EU. From 2000 onwards, however, most countries have recorded a rising trend in this expenditure, which is in line with the Lisbon Strategy goals. Slovenia’s relatively high share is nevertheless still much lower than the shares of some northern European countries, notably Denmark, Sweden and Norway (over 7%-8% of GDP).

Slovenia also tops the EU average by its share of public expenditure on education in total public expenditure. In 2003 this share rose to 12.52% in Slovenia (12.44% in 2001), ranking the country 13th in the EU. Most countries increased their public expenditure on education expressed as a share of total public expenditure in 1995-2002 (Latvia and France were the only exceptions). However, as countries have different shares of total public expenditure relative to GDP, the country rankings according to this indicator are slightly different. Lithuania, Cyprus and Latvia, rather than Scandinavian countries, are in the lead.

Slovenia’s total public expenditure on tertiary education as a share of GDP is higher than the comparable shares in most new member states and the EU average, partly due to the high transfers to households (see the figure). Slovenia’s total public expenditure on tertiary education as a share of GDP totalled 1.32% in 2001 and 2002, having risen to 1.34% in 2003.[4] The allocation of public expenditure on tertiary education differs across countries. Some countries have higher direct expenditure on educational institutions while others earmark more funds for transfers to households and loans for tuition fees. The Czech Republic, Greece, Spain, France, Poland and Portugal earmark more than 90% of their total expenditure on tertiary education for educational institutions. The corresponding average share in the EU is 83.6%, while Slovenia’s it is just 74.2%. As much as 25.9% of Slovenia’s total public expenditure at the tertiary level of education goes for transfers to households (national and Zois scholarships, child benefits). High transfers are also characteristic of Scandinavian countries.

The high expenditure on tertiary education in Slovenia is also linked to the high participation rate in tertiary education. According to Eurostat’s estimate, Slovenia’s expenditure on public education expressed as a share of GDP would be around 0.3 p.p. lower (i.e. 1.0% of GDP) if the participation rate in tertiary education[5] were at the average EU-25 level. Assuming this situation, only Finland, Sweden and Norway would still have lower total public expenditure on tertiary education than Slovenia (Finland by 0.8 p.p.), while the shares of the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Malta, Slovakia and Switzerland would rise by over 0.5 p.p. (Statistics in Focus, 18/2005). Apart from the participation factor, the level of tertiary education expenditure is also significantly determined by the average duration of studies at the tertiary level.  The average of the OECD countries in 2002 was 4.21 years (Education at a Glance, 2005)[6]. Comparable data for Slovenia are not available yet but some figures suggest that Slovenia does not exceed the average official duration of study programmes in the EU[7]. However, the average graduate in Slovenia is estimated (Mihevc, 2005) to have spent 5.4 years on his or her studies at higher education programmes (about 1.5 years longer than expected) and 7.3 years at university programmes (more than 2 years longer than expected) in 2004.

Table: Total public expenditure on education as a % of GDP and as a % of total public expenditure

Sources: Rapid Reports. No. 149/2005, First Release No. 86 – SORS (2006); National accounts – SORS (Sept. 2005), Main aggregates of the general government sector – First Release No. 82 (2006); IMAD's calculations; Population and social condition - Eurostat (2005), Education at a Glance 2005 – OECD, 2005. Notes: 1Averages for the EU-25, EU-15, EU-10 – Eurostat's estimates (weighted averages for the entire area); EU-10 – new member states. 2Average for OECD countries – calculation by OECD (mean value).

Expenditure on educational institutions per student

With regard to per capita expenditure for tertiary education students, Slovenia significantly lags behind the majority of more developed EU states and the European average. The situation further deteriorated in 2002. In spite of relatively high expenditure on tertiary education institutions[8], the figures for Slovenia paint a different picture if annual expenditure is calculated per number of students. In 2002 expenditure per student amounted to EUR 6,139 in Purchasing Power Standards (hereinafter EUR PPS[9]; 7,452 in 2001) in Slovenia, while the EU-25 average amounted to 7,946 EUR PPS. In certain Scandinavian countries, expenditure per student almost doubled that of Slovenia (in Sweden it amounted to as much as 13,658 EUR PPS). The figure shows that new EU member states, with the exception of Cyprus, spend less per student than the EU average. In general, expenditure per student in tertiary education is considerably higher in those countries with higher per capita income. In international comparisons, the indicator of expenditure on education institutions per student in comparison with per capita GDP is therefore a frequently used indicator (see the table), reflecting investments per capita taking a country's level of economic development into account. The indicator proves that investments per student can be approximately the same even in countries with different per capita incomes (e.g. Poland and Finland with 43%) (Statistics in Focus, 18/2005). In Slovenia in 2002 the share of expenditure per student amounted to 38.2% of GDP per capita (48.7% in 2001), which is slightly above the EU-25 average (37.1%), but less than in most EU member states. In Slovenia, both indicators of expenditure per student worsened in 2002 in comparison with 2001. The gap between the relatively high total expenditure on tertiary education institutions on one hand and the low annual expenditure per student in tertiary education, when compared with other European countries, is closely connected with a high participation rate in tertiary education[10] and the duration of studies[11].

Concerning per capita expenditure, Slovenia ranks higher for all levels of education together than for tertiary education. Thus in 2002 in Slovenia, 4,862.2 EUR PPS (4,689.1 EUR PPS in 2001) was expended per pupil/student, which is close to the EU-25 average (5,391.7 EUR PPS). A completely different picture is given by the indicator of expenditure per pupil/student expressed in % of GDP per capita (Table), according to which Slovenia with 30.3% in 2002 ranks at the top of European countries (together with Cyprus) and well above the EU-15 (25.3%) and EU-25 averages (25.1%). Per capita expenditure in EUR PPS in most EU and OECD countries has been increasing in the past few years primarily at the primary and secondary levels because the size of classes is shrinking due to demographic changes. However, certain comparisons between pupil achievements by country and expenditure on education per pupil/student show that higher expenditure does not necessarily mean better results or a higher quality education (Education at a Glance 2005).

Table: Annual expenditure on educational institutions per pupil/student, in Purchasing Power Standards (EUR PPS) and in comparison with GDP per capita

	IN EUR PPS		Share in GDP per capita1, in %
	All levels	Tertiary education4	All levels			Tertiary education4
	2002	2002	2000	2001	2002	2000	2001	2002
EU-25	5,392	7,946	24.0	24.9	25.1	38.1	37.2	37.1
EU-15	5,878	8,562	24.2	25.2	25.3	37.9	36.9	36.9
OECD	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	43.0
Austria	7,632	10,747	N/A	N/A	29.4	N/A	N/A	41.4
Belgium	6,507	10,377	23.0	26.4	26.3	40.7	42.7	42.0
Cyprus	5,363	8,487	29.5	29.2	30.3	51.8	50.0	48.0
Czech Republic	2,986	5,384	20.1	20.4	20.8	35.5	37.2	37.6
Denmark	7,344	13,109	28.4	29.1	28.3	45.0	50.1	50.5
Finland	5,983	10,160	24.2	23.8	25.4	42.3	35.3	43.2
France	6,077	8,009	24.2	24.2	24.3	31.9	31.8	32.0
Ireland	4,999	8,469	18.0	18.0	17.3	38.2	33.0	29.4
Latvia	2,221	2,829	26.2	26.3	26.6	40.5	36.3	33.9
Germany	6,012	9,496	25.7	25.7	26.2	41.7	41.3	41.4
Netherlands	6,038	11,311	21.7	22.5	23.4	45.4	45.2	43.9
Poland	2,537	4,174	21.8	23.8	26.4	29.7	36.6	43.4
Portugal	4,834	4,328	25.8	29.6	29.8	28.4	29.1	26.7
Slovenia	4,867	6,138	N/A	30.7	30.3	N/A	48.7	38.2
Spain	4,837	6,925	23.8	24.0	24.3	32.9	34.9	34.7
Sweden	6,801	13,568	26.1	26.0	28.1	57.8	56.5	56.1
United Kingdom	5,996	10,430	21.3	23.2	24.5	38.0	41.3	42.7
Norway	8,611	11,862	24.5	25.6	27.4	34.7	36.1	37.7
USA	9,660	18,260	29.7	29.9	30.6	64.7	62.2	57.8

Source:  Population and social condition - Eurostat (2005); Education at a Glance 2005 - OECD (2005). Note: 1GDP per capita in EUR PPS; 2EU-25 and EU-15 averages – calculated by Eurostat (weighted averages); 3Averages for OECD countries – calculation by OECD (mean value); 4includes expenditure for research and development in tertiary education.

Share of population with tertiary education

The population’s education structure in Slovenia continues to improve; however, the share of the population with tertiary education has been slowly approaching the average EU level. The share of the population aged 25-64 with tertiary education reached 20.0% in the second quarter of 2005 according to the labour force survey (1.2 p.p. more than a year ago and 5.8 p.p. more than in 1995) while the share of the population having attained secondary education remained the same as in 2004 (60.5%, i.e. 6.0 p.p. more than in 1995). Within that, the share of people having attained a vocational secondary education is contracting while the share of people with a technical or general secondary education is rising. The share of the population aged 25-64 who have completed at least secondary education thus rose to the high 80.5% by Q2 of 2005 (68.7% in 1995 and, according to census data, 75.9% in 2002 and 59.1% in 1991). In the EU, the average shares of the population aged 25-64 with a tertiary education was 22.5% in the EU-25 and 24.0% in the EU-15 in 2005, which is a respective 2.8 and 4.0 p.p. more than in Slovenia (see the table).

The participation rate of young people and adults in the formal education system continues to rise. In the 2004/2005 academic year, around 80% of the generation aged 15-19 were enrolled in secondary schools (67.2% in 1994/1995). The Lisbon strategy target was thus met. The shares of pupils enrolled in grammar schools and technical secondary schools have risen notably, while enrolment in secondary vocational schools and lower-secondary vocational programmes has declined. In 2004, 95.5% of the generation had attained secondary education[12] (26.4% of the generation finished vocational schools while 69.1% graduated from technical and general secondary schools). In 1995, the corresponding percentage was 72.9% (32.5% of the generation from vocational schools and 40.4% from 4- to 5-year secondary schools). The number of adults enrolled in formal secondary education, which had already exceeded 20,000 in the 2000/2001 academic year (8,460 in 1994/1995), continues to climb slowly. In 2003/2004, a total of 21,732 persons were enrolled in adult secondary education programmes, while 6,227 people finished secondary schools (3.4-times more than in 1994/1995).

The number of tertiary level students and graduates is also rising steadily. In the 2004/2005 academic year, a total of 112,228 students were enrolled at all three tertiary education levels; 12,621 thereof in post-secondary vocational, 91,229 in higher professional and university, and 8,378 in postgraduate programmes. The ratio of the number of students per 1,000 population rose to 56.2 in 2004 (24.1 in 1995), while the share of students in the population aged 20-29 was 37.9% (16.4% in 1995). Slovenia has thus achieved the level of EU members with the highest ratios of students to total population[13]. The number of full-time students is rising; together with graduation candidates and full-time postgraduate students, it already includes more than 50% of the generation aged 19-23 (23.6% in 1994/1995). The number of part-time students is also still rising while their ratio to total students has stabilised at the level between 35% and 36% (24% in 1995). The number of part-time students is growing notably in post-secondary vocational schools and at the postgraduate level, whereas it is decreasing slowly at the higher professional and university levels. The growing number of students has been matched by a rise in the number of graduates, which currently totals 50.2 per 1,000 population aged 20-29 (24.5 in 1995) and is approaching the average EU-25[14] level.

Table: Share of the population aged 25-64 having completed tertiary education in Slovenia and the EU-25, 1995-2005 (second quarter), %

	1995	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
EU-25	N/A	20.0	20.1	20.4	21.3	22.2	22.8
EU-15	17.7	21.2	21.5	21.8	22.6	23.4	24.0
EU-10	N/A	13.9	13.1	13.5	14.7	15.9	17.0
Austria	N/A	14.5	15.2	15.1	15.2	18.4	17.6
Belgium	23.3	27.2	27.8	27.9	28.2	29.8	30.7
Cyprus	N/A	25.1	26.8	29.1	29.5	29.4	27.8
Czech Rep.	N/A	11.5	11.6	11.8	11.9	12.3	13.1
Denmark	27.2	25.8	28.1	29.0	31.8	32.4	33.0
Estonia	N/A	28.9	29.8	29.7	30.4	31.5	33.6
Finland	21.0	32.6	32.5	32.4	32.8	34.0	34.5
France	N/A	21.6	22.6	23.5	23.5	23.9	24.6
Greece	14.3	16.9	17.2	17.9	18.6	20.6	20.5
Ireland	19.9	21.6	23.4	25.1	26.8	28.3	29.0
Italy	7.4	9.6	10.0	10.4	10.8	11.4	11.9
Latvia	N/A	18.0	18.1	19.6	18.2	19.4	21.5
Lithuania	N/A	21.8	22.4	21.9	23.2	24.2	26.5
Luxembourg	15.5	18.5	18.1	18.8	19.9	22.8	22.8
Hungary	N/A	14.0	13.9	14.0	15.2	16.6	17.0
Malta	N/A	5.4	9.6	8.6	9.0	10.9	12.2
Germany	22.1	23.8	23.5	22.3	24.0	24.9	24.4
Netherlands	N/A	24.1	24.0	24.9	27.3	29.3	30.3
Poland	N/A	11.4	11.7	12.2	13.9	15.3	16.5
Portugal	11.3	9.0	9.3	9.5	10.5	12.6	12.7
Slovakia	N/A	10.3	10.6	10.8	11.6	12.8	13.9
Slovenia	14.2	15.7	14.1	14.8	17.8	18.8	20.0
Spain	16.4	22.5	23.6	24.6	25.0	26.4	28.2
Sweden	27.7	29.7	25.5	26.4	27.2	28.1	29.5
United Kingdom	21.8	28.1	28.5	29.2	30.5	29.1	29.5

Sources: SORS,

Eurostat: http://epp.eurostat.cec.eu.int/extraction/getExport/en/theme3/lfsq/lfsq_pgaed?OutputDir=EJOutputDir_1203&OutputMime=application%2Fx-tab&OutputMode=U&OutputFile=lfsq_pgaed.tab&NumberOfCells=1089&Language=en. 

Ratio of students to teaching staff

The ratio of students to teaching staff is used as an indicator of quality in tertiary education.  It is assumed that the ratio reflects the workload of teachers and that a lesser load offers more possibilities for active teaching and thus a higher quality education. The ratio is calculated by dividing the number of full-time equivalent students[15] in tertiary education by the number of full-time equivalent teachers in tertiary education[16]. It should be noted, however, that the calculation does not take into account the actual teaching time of teachers nor the weekly number of a student's study hours, which means that this ratio does not lead to the conclusion about the average class size[17] or, more precisely, this should not be regarded as the same.

In the 2004/2005 academic year, Slovenia calculated an internationally comparable indicator for the first time[18]. This indicator shows a considerable lag of Slovenia behind the OECD average. On average, there were 22.6 students per teacher in tertiary education in 2004/2005 (21.5 students in 2003/2004) in Slovenia. The indicator is internationally comparable[19] only for 2005 in terms of the methodology used. It shows that Slovenia lags behind the OECD average (14.9) and most EU member states in which the ratio amounted to 9.0 in Sweden through to 29.6 in Greece 2002/2003. In the 1998-2003 period, the ratio became slightly less favourable in most countries for which there is data available due to high increases in the number of students. In Slovenia, the ratio slightly improved in the 2000-2003 period (from 23.8 in 2000 to 22.9 in 2003), but the data only include full-time students and therefore cannot be compared with those of other countries.

The ratio of students to teaching staff is also influenced by the type of undergraduate courses. Data for OECD countries show that the student/teaching staff ratio is normally lower in professional programmes of type B (the OECD average being 14.1) than of type A (the OECD average being 15.7)[20]. In Slovenia, the ratio at vocational colleges belonging to type B programmes is worse than the OECD average: in 2003/2004 it was 17.0, while in 2004/2005 it grew to 17.9. The ratio is even worse at undergraduate professional and university programmes (5A and 5B): there were 23.2 students per teaching staff in 2004/2005.

Table: The ratio of students to teaching staff in tertiary education

Source: Education at a Glance (issues: 2002 – 2005); Rapid Reports No. 121 – Education, SORS (2005); Rapid Reports No. 259 – Education, SORS 2005; calculations IMAD. Note: Data for year Y refer to the X/Y academic year. 1 For Slovenia, only the 2005 data are internationally comparable in full (until 2003 – full-time equivalent student/teacher ratio in full-time courses; 2004 – the total of students expressed as a full-time equivalent does not include doctoral students, while the number of teachers for the first time also included part-time teachers and those at postgraduate levels in addition to full-time staff, expressed as a full-time equivalent.

Figure: The ratio of students to teaching staff in tertiary education in 2003 (2002/2003 academic year)

Source: Education at a Glance 2005; Rapid Reports No. 121 – Education, SORS (2005); Rapid Reports No. 259 – Education, SORS (2004); calculations IMAD.

Note: For Slovenia, only the 2005 data are fully internationally comparable .

Average years of schooling attained by persons in employment

Although the average years of schooling attained by employed people in Slovenia has been rising steadily, it is still significantly below the level of this indicator in developed countries. Data available for 2005[21] show that people in employment in Slovenia completed 11.8 years of schooling according to the labour force survey and 11.6 years according to the statistical employment register, which is a respective 0.8 and 0.6 of a year more than in 1995, and 0.09/0.07 of a year more than in 2004. In comparison with the average of the OECD countries[22] the value of this indicator in Slovenia is low. In the EU only Greece, Italy and Portugal, and for women alone Slovakia, have lower values of this indicator than Slovenia (see the figure). In Q2 of 2005, employed men had attained 11.6 years of schooling on average while women attained 12.0 years. In 2003, men received 0.1 of a year less and women 0.2 of a year less schooling than in 2005, which was at that time a respective 0.9 and 0.7 of a year below the OECD average (12.7 and 12.5 years, respectively) and a respective 2.5 and 2.4 years below the highest average years of schooling attained by people in employment, then recorded in Norway and the USA (14.0 years for men and 14.2 years for women).

The highest level of average years of schooling was achieved in the education sector itself, where it is also rising at the fastest pace. People employed in the education sector attained an average of 13.9 years of schooling according to figures from December 2005, which is 0.1 of a year more than in 2004 and 0.9 of a year more than in 1995. Education was followed by public administration and financial intermediation, while the lowest average years of schooling were registered among people employed in construction (10.0). The indicator is also low in manufacturing (10.6), where it has been increasing very sluggishly (see the table). Within manufacturing, only workers employed in the manufacture of petroleum products, chemicals and chemical products and in paper, publishing and printing industries received more than 11 years of education, while the lowest average years of schooling are found in the manufacture of leather and leather products (10.0).

The share of persons in employment with a completed higher education is growing in all activities – most rapidly in those which also record the highest average years of schooling attained. According to the labour force survey, this share topped 20% of the total employed population in Slovenia in 2004 and totalled 21.5% in Q2 of 2005 (6 p.p. more than in 1995). Generally, the highest and most rapidly rising shares of employed people with a higher education are found in the activities where people received the highest average years of schooling.  These include the education, public administration and financial intermediation sectors, where the shares of highly-skilled employees increased by more than 11 p.p. in ten years.  In December 2005, the proportion of employees with a higher education totalled 61.2% in education, 48.0% in public administration and 39.2% in financial intermediation. High ratios of workers with completed tertiary education were also recorded in health care and social work (35.7% in December 2005), real estate, renting and business services (34.5%), other community, social and personal services (29.5%) and electricity, gas and water supply (23.4%). In all other mainly production-oriented branches there were less than 13% of workers with tertiary education. The lowest shares of such workers were registered in construction and hotels and restaurants (around 5.5%). The education sector also still employs the largest share (20.9%) of the total employed population with a completed tertiary education in Slovenia. The next highest shares in this category were observed in manufacturing (14.4%), public administration (13.8%), real estate, renting and business services (13.5%), health care and social work (10.5%) and wholesale and retail trade (8.0%).

Table: Average years of schooling attained by persons in employment in Slovenia

Source: SORS, Statistical Register of Employment; calculations by IMAD.

(Source of text: Development report 2006; Institute for Macroeconomic Analysis and Development; http://www.gov.si/zmar/aindex.php)

[1] Sweden (33%) and Denmark (32%) have the largest shares of tertiary education graduates in the EU, which however have been greatly outpaced by the USA (38%) (Education at a Glance, 2005).

[2] Financial data for Slovenia are collected using an internationally comparable methodology based on the UOE questionnaire (a joint questionnaire of UNESCO, OECD and Eurostat). Data cover only formal education.

[3] Total public expenditure on education comprises the total budgetary expenditure on formal education of youth and adults at national and municipal levels. This includes public direct expenditure on educational institutions (both instructional and non-instructional) and transfers to households and non-profit institutions (grants, training grants for the unemployed, subsidised tickets, subsidised textbooks, evaluation costs, child benefits, to the level that is conditional on inclusion in education).

[4] Public expenditure on R&D in tertiary education is included.

[5] The participation rate in tertiary education is calculated as the share of participating population aged 20-29 (Statistics in Focus 19/2005).

[6] Eurostat does not publish data on average duration of studies. These data are planned to be collected for 2005 for the first time.

[7] The share of students (both full-time and part-time) enrolled at university programmes shrank from 52.8% to 47.6% in 2000-2003 (in 2004 and 2005 it rebounded to 48.1%). Data on graduates by type of programme similarly show that only 30% of total undergraduate students (ISCED 5A) finish the studies whose duration is more than 5 years in Slovenia. In contrast, the corresponding shares in Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia amount to 80% (Statistics in Focus 19/2005).  

[8] Indicators: Total public expenditure on education and Public and private expenditure on educational institutions

[9] Purchasing Power Standards (PPS). The basis for calculations into PPS is EUR, which means that the data is first converted from national currencies into EUR and then, by using special converters or Purchasing Power Standards (PPS), from EUR into Purchasing Power Standards – that is a common fictional currency enabling comparisons of economic aggregates, taking into account differences in price levels among countries. 

[10]  The rate of participation in tertiary education with regard to cohorts aged 20 to 24 amounted for the first time to approximately 68% (EU average 56%) in 2002/2003 in Slovenia. In addition, the percentage of students enrolled in tertiary education for the first time is quite high (85%; relatively calculated with regard to the age of the cohort at the beginning of studies (18-19 years)). In Europe, only Sweden and Iceland (approximately 90%) have a higher participation rate for first-time enrolments (Statistics in Focus 19/2005).

[11] Indicator: Total public expenditure on education.

[12] The generation aged 15 at the time of enrolment in the respective types of secondary schools.

[13] Eurostat’s statistical database enables calculations of these ratios for 2003. The highest ratios of the number of students to 1,000 population were found in Finland (56.0%) and the Czech Republic (53.2%) while the EU-25 average was 37.0%. The highest ratios of students to the population aged 20-29 were recorded in Finland (44.7%), the Czech Republic (43.2%) and Sweden (38.4%). The EU-25 average stood at 27.6%, while Slovenia’s score was 50.9 students per 1,000 population and 34.0 students per 1,000 population aged 20-29, ranking Slovenia 6th among the current 25 EU members according to both indicators (IMAD's calculations based on Eurostat's data).

[14] In 2003, the EU-25 average was 52.9 graduates per 1,000 population aged 20-29. Ireland (82.6), United Kingdom (81.4) and Poland (77.8) had the highest ratios. The value of this indicator in Slovenia in 2003 was 46.6.

[15] The number of full-time equivalent students in tertiary education = full-time students + 1/3 (part-time students + candidates for graduation + postgraduate students).

[16] In connection with this indicator, teaching staff includes instructional and professional support staff at vocational colleges (vocational college lecturers, exercise instructors, and lab assistants) and teaching faculty  (assistant professors, associate and full professors, lectors, lecturers and senior lecturers), excluding researchers and higher education assistants (teaching assistants, librarians, specialist advisors, research advisors, senior researchers, researchers, and skills teachers).

[17] The class size is thought to be an indicator more accurately reflecting the load of teachers and consequently the quality of the school system, but it is calculated only for lower levels of the education system (ISCED 1-3).

[18] The 2004/2005 data on the total number of students also includes doctor’s degree students for the first time (therefore the 2004/2005 ratio (22.6) is higher than the 2003/2004 ratio (21.5)). As far as teaching staff is concerned, in 2003/2004 teaching staff giving courses for part-time and postgraduate students were included in addition to those giving courses for full-time students (Rapid Reports No. 259 – SORS, 2004).

Basic Indicators

The share of elementary school pupils continuing their education at the secondary level amounted to 98% in 2001/2002. In 2000, 75.4% of the generation completed secondary school.

The share of pupils and apprentices continuing their education in technical education programmes after completing a vocational school has been increasing every year and amounts to more than 40%.

The attendance of youth in regular formal education, both on secondary and higher education levels, has been constantly increasing for the last three decades. The attendance rate of age group 15-18 in secondary education increased from 71% in the middle of the 1980's to 84% in 1996; the attendance rate of age group 19-23 in higher education increased from 13 to 25%. In the second half of the 1990's, the attendance rate of both age groups reached the average rates of the developed countries from 1980.

Slovenia's lagging behind in youth education is smaller than that in adult education. Due to rapid expansion of enrolment in higher education in the 1990's Slovenia has already reached the level of many developed countries.

In 2004/05 there were more than 99.600 Higher Education (HE) Students in Slovenia.

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