EKONOMICKÝ A SOCIÁLNY ROZVOJ SLOVENSKA

are 284,791 students. We can name other countries as well, but when compared to Slo-
vakia we can state that our country is not behind the global trend (there are 42 higher
education students for 1,000 citizens in Slovak Republic). This fact has become real
due to private higher education schools as well.
28
Considering some inconsistent discussions about the number and quality of pri-
vate higher education schools (their surplus, insufficiency and quality), it is necessary
to take into consideration some facts:
•
The number of higher education schools is based on global and European de-
velopment trends. One ne of the main objectives has been increase of the qual- qual-
ity of workforce by increasing and extending education not only of young
people but in the form of lifetime education of adults to high age. The trend
is equivalent to general demographic development showing that population
mainly in Europe is getting older and growth of the number of citizens is not
equivalent to its drop. Examples of lifetime education system might be north-
european countries in which this kind of education has been provided for
several years. Private schools are able to fill in the gap in the capacity of higher
education schools. In the table, we can compare trend of citizens growth with
the highest education in 2005:
The rate of citizens with the highest education (in %, year 2005)
Country Rate in %
USA 40
Ireland 37
Spain 37
France 36
Great Britain 31
The Netherlands 27
Germany 21
Hungary 15
Czech Republic 12
Resource: IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook, 2005.
Table 1
*The rate in Slovakia is not stated, but we can deduct that it is on the same level as in Czech Republic.