The Process of Diversification of Postsecondary Education in Slovakia

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

The diversification of postsecondary education may be considered one of the main features of the post-November 1989 development of education in the Slovak Republic. In spite of the communist regime's efforts to preserve a unified system of higher education, awareness has been growing of the insufficient liaison between higher education and the world of work and the need for new types of graduate with practical skills. Even before November 1989 there were half-hearted attempts to point out the gap between the student who had completed secondary education and the graduate who had completed higher education. The development of science and technology and of the economy gave rise to new jobs and posts which did not require the type of academic education offered by traditional higher education institutions, but for which secondary education was not sufficient either. The so-called 'post-maturita' courses (offered after the school leaving examination at some more advanced secondary schools) filled in the gap to a certain extent in some professions, although their quality was closer to secondary than postsecondary level, and few students took advantage of them. Meanwhile, the situation in western countries was well known to many academic administrators and teachers but since the majority, including the staff of the ministry of education, came from traditional academic circles, they underestimated the need to develop the shorter forms of higher education oriented more towards practical skills. They said such education would be of lower quality, arguing that its development would be the result of political decisions-an attempt to compete with western higher education institutions. Also, many serious academics and researchers with international experience were sincerely persuaded (and some still are) that introducing another type of higher education would mean a decline in the standards and prestige of higher education. In these circumstances the Higher Education Act adopted in 1990 was seen as very progressive. The part covering the new structure of higher education studies gave higher education institutions the possibility of organising shorter, self-contained higher courses leading to a bachelor's degree. In accordance with the new legislation transferring responsibility for deciding on the number of students enrolled and the criteria for admission to the higher education institutions themselves, the number of full-time students developed as shown in Table I.