Higher Education Demand Factors and the Demand for Tourism Education in Slovenia

This paper investigates the higher education demand in Slovenia, which is investigated in general and in the field of tourism, using regression analysis on selected time-series data. We find a positive and significant association between the higher education demand in general and the demographic and socio-economic circumstances. Demographic trends in general slow down or even decrease the demand for higher education, while socio-economic factors mostly encourage the demand for higher education. However, unfavourable demographic factors are already prevailing over the favourable socio-economic factors, meaning that growth rates of absolute demand for higher education are starting to decline. We analyze the movements of demand for higher education in the field of tourism in recent years and compare them to the movements of the demand for higher education in general and to the movements of the demand for tourism in Slovenia. The demand for tourist services is a factor that encourages demands for higher education in the field of tourism. Finally, we derive some conclusions about higher education demand determinants in Slovenia in general and in the field of tourism, and propose some recommendations for national educational policy.