The new social legislation mainly spurred public discontent by introducing property in the eligibility criteria for some of the social transfers.

But it also replaced state scholarships for secondary school students under 18 with child allowance and abolished state scholarships for foreign students.

By the end of 2011, an average of 1,000 of foreign students, mostly from countries of the former Yugoslavia, were eligible for scholarship and with January 2012 a total of 1,762 lost it.

Almost EUR 2.5m was distributed through scholarships for foreign students in the 2010/2011 academic year.

The group of some 50 protesters received an answer from the university's chancellor, Stanislav Pejovnik, who said he would try to address the issue of scholarships for foreign students in three steps.

According to Pejovnik, the University of Ljubljana will set up a special fund to which Slovenian companies and individuals will contribute some EUR 150,000 to help the foreign students.

The chancellor's second solution was expanding the Ad futura fund for Slovenian students abroad to allow an internationalisation of Slovenian universities and donations to foreign students. A call for applications in line with this should be out in March, he said.

A more lasting solution would be another change in the law.