ABSTRACT
In the last few years, European Union member states and applicant countries have been facing signifi cant higher education reform that should unify higher education systems in the area into something that can be called a European higher education space. This should lead to more comparable levels of education and consequently, according to the Lisbon strategy, increase individuals’ competitiveness in labour markets. In reality, there are two basic effects of this reform that are already showing results, especially in Central and Eastern European member states and some applicant countries. In general, states that have no tradition of private education are facing increasing numbers of different high schools, faculties, and universities with questionable quality, and the level of knowledge in the general population is falling despite an increasing number of university degrees awarded. However, this chapter is mostly concerned with what is going on with relations in certain policy arenas in the aforementioned framework. Even though one can argue that observations are valid for all Central and Eastern European countries, as well as South-West European countries, that is, all transitional countries with a communist past that are trying to adapt to the EU context, all basic information for this chapter is mainly gathered on the case of Slovenia.
