Almost 50% of Slovenian youth studying
Ljubljana, 17 November - As many as 48.6% of the Slovenian youth aged 19 to 24 study, which makes Slovenia an EU leader, the Statistics Office said before Wednesday's International Students' Days. In the academic year 2018/19, Greece was the only other EU country to have more than 40% of the youth in tertiary education.
Škofja Loka
More than 40% of Slovenia's youth in tertiary education.
Photo: Nebojša Tejić/STA
File photo
In the 2020/21 academic year, almost 82,700 students studied on almost 870 various tertiary education programmes, of whom 9.2%, or just over 7,600, from abroad.
The number of students increased fast after Slovenia gained independence in 1991 - from over 50,000 in 1996/97 to over 100,000 in 2002/03 and to record 115,944 in 2006/07.
The number of foreign students doubled in the last three academic years: from 4.5% in 2017/18 to 9.2% in 2020/21, with most of them (60%) coming from the former Yugoslavia area in 2019/20. A year earlier, Slovenia placed 21st in the EU in terms of the share of foreign students.
In 2018/19, students on average spent 35 hours a week studying and 16 working.
As many as two-thirds also worked while studying, 38.6% regularly and 26.5% occasionally. Over 43% would not be able to afford studies without working.
Students are relatively happy with their lives; last year, they gave their life 8.2 points out 10, which is above the national average of 7.4.