Higher education in Slovenia - funding, equity and efficiency

This paper aims to answer the following questions about undergraduate higher education (HE) in Slovenia: does the current system of funding assure equity and efficiency? Is it necessary and possible to increase private investment in higher education? The paper starts with a description of the broader context looking at educational capital and external efficiency of investment in education. It continues with an overview of the higher education funding system in Slovenia that examines public expenditure on education and describes the division of costs among the different actors. The paper then turns to its main focus on equity and efficiency in Slovenia's HE funding system and the economic ability of undergraduate students and their parents to increase their private investment in it. The "core" of the paper is based on the extensive empirical research that recently has been carried out by the Institute for Economic Research in Ljubljana in collaboration with the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia.