The United Kingdom, probably due to the high tuition fees at its higher education institutions, is not among the most popular study destinations for Slovenian students. The Student Organization of Slovenia (ŠOS) has no information about the number of Slovenian students attending long-term studies in the UK, as students there do not have a status which is also valid in Slovenia.
As long as the United Kingdom remains a part of the EU, Slovenian students at British and Northern Irish universities will continue to pay the same tuition fees domestic students do. According to ŠOS the tuition fees amount to around 10.000 euros per year. For students coming from other countries the fees are much higher, with the exception of those coming from countries which have signed bilateral agreements with the UK, which regulate the co-financing or financing of tuition fees.
The Ministry of Higher Education and the Slovene Human Resources Development and Scholarship Fund are without data on the number of Slovenian students in the UK. Inquiries about Slovenian students have only been for Austria and Germany through the Slovenian embassies.
Most popular Erasmus
Most popular is the short-term study or student exchange program called Erasmus. Included in the program are also non-EU countries, like for example Switzerland. The Slovenian student organization sees no reason for any fundamental changes for Slovenian students going abroad. The United Kingdom, regardless of the outcome of the referendum, will probably remain part of the Erasmus student network.
The Slovenian Centre for Mobility and European Educational and Training Programmes (CMEPIUS), which covers the field of education, training and sport, explains that in the frameworks of the lifelong learning program 490 students went to the UK between the years 2008 and 2013, which means around 80 per year.
The majority of student exchanges in the field of humanities
According to CMEPIUS most of the student exchanges were in the fields of humanities, social sciences and business sciences. Most of the exchanges involving practical training were in the fields of medical studies and business sciences. For the new Erasmus program there is only available data for the year 2014, when 104 Slovenian students went to Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Meanwhile Slovenia is significantly less interesting for British students. Between the years 2008 and 2013 there were only 67 British students in Slovenia, from that 58 took part in student exchange programs lasting between three months and one year.
The United Kingdom is also not the most popular destination for Slovenian students. In 2014 clearly more popular were Germany (1.421 Slovenian students on exchange programs), Spain (1.395), Portugal (973) ... CMEPIUS does not expect any significant changes in the case of a Brexit. Even if the United Kingdom votes to exit the EU, it will most likely remain a part of the Erasmus program, which is to run until the end of the program period - the year 2020.
G. C.; translated by K. J.
