Challenges ahead as the new academic year begins
While the number of university and college students has been falling over the past years, almost one half of all 19- to 24-year olds in Slovenia study.
Also on the decrease is the number of freshmen; 15,300 enrolled in the 2015/16 academic year, which is a drop of almost 5,000 from five years earlier.
As many as 18,500 places for graduate and master's programmes have been offered by Slovenia's higher education institutions this academic year.
The majority are available at the University of Ljubljana, the biggest and oldest Slovenian university.
In a message issued on Friday, the education minister wished students and teachers a successful year.
Minister Maja Makovec Brenčič welcomed especially all the freshmen, wishing them that the chosen programme would meet their expectations and take them closer to their goals.
She also thanked university teachers for all their dedication, which she said had resulted in a series of achievements of Slovenian students at home and abroad.
Slovenia's higher education is however facing several challenges, even if some of them are being addressed in the changes to the higher education act, which are making it through parliament.
While the changes passed at first reading earlier this year, Education Ministry State Secretary Tomaž Boh said more talks would be needed to come to a solution regarding the use of English.
There has been a lot of opposition to introducing English as a teaching language along Slovenian, a solution with which the government wants to open up higher education.
Another problem seems to be public and commercial activity carried out by higher education institutions, which the Slovenian Student Organisation (ŠOS) believes should be clearly separated.
The ŠOS is also against the changes setting down a new manner of accreditation of study programmes, whereby the National Commission for the Quality of Higher Education would accredit study programmes only once a new programme is introduced.
Later on, faculties themselves would be responsible for quality monitoring. The ŠOS fears that the lack of external oversight would lead to chaos.
The Slovenian chancellors' conference has meanwhile welcomed the planned changes.
Its head, Primorsko University Chancellor Dragan Marušič is especially happy with the new, more stable model of funding public universities, which is in line with a relevant Constitutional Court ruling.
Once the changes to the higher education law are passed in parliament, the ministry will embark on drafting a brand new higher education bill and a new bill on research.
State Secretary Boh said that they would like to have the blueprint for the former bill ready by the end of the year, so that it could be passed in 2017.
The new higher education bill would address one of the ŠOS's main grievances - separating the faculties' public from private programmes.
The ŠOS would also like the new bill to set clear standards and norms for teachers, regulate the status of students who are either athletes, artists or disabled, and upgrade the students' participation in decision making at faculties.
The ministry has, on the other hand, made it a priority to carry out calls for EU funds which would encourage faculties to upgrade their cooperation with businesses and foreign institutions, said Boh.
September 30 was, meanwhile, the last day for those studying under non-Bologna programmes to finish their studies.
While the final figures are yet to come in, unofficial figures suggest that there were around 10,000 such students.
The number of those finishing their studies this year is therefore expected to be higher.
While an average 10,000 students finish their studies a year at the University of Ljubljana, this year the figure is expected to reach around 15,000.