Slovakia keeps losing its best students. They are leaving for schools abroad

This can have an negative impact on universities, science as well as the labour market.

Illustrative stock photoIllustrative stock photo (Source: SME)

The best secondary school graduates continue in their studies at schools abroad. Moreover, most of them decide not to return after they finish school, which results in the Slovak labour market losing qualified workforce and Slovak science potential PhD students and scientists.

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This can eventually have a negative impact on economic growth, according to the latest analysis on brain drain published by the Institute for Educational Policy, running under the Education Ministry.

The share of students abroad increases

About 55 percent of secondary school graduates in Slovakia continue with university studies. While in 2012, 12 percent of them decided to study abroad, the share rose to 17 percent in 2018. As a result, Slovakia has the second highest share of students abroad of the OECD countries.

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