This chapter provides information about groups of students who are legally entitled to special support measures. They are students with special needs and students with special statuses. It also describes various types of support, as well as guidance and counselling for students' lifelong learning.

Definition of the target group(s)

• Students with special educational needs are students who are blind or partially sighted, or who have visual impairments; deaf and hard-of-hearing students; deaf-blind students; students with speech and language difficulties; students with specific learning difficulties; students with physical disabilities; students with long-term illnesses; students with autism spectrum disorders; and students experiencing psychosocial difficulties.
• Students with a special status or students who are recognised athletes, coaches, artists and cultural practitioners, other students participating in international competitions in their respective fields, and student parents until their child reaches compulsory school age.

Specific support measures

Higher vocational colleges (HVCs) and higher education institutions are autonomous in their approach to students with special needs (SEN students) and students with special status. They adapt individual activities and provide those students with equal opportunities. They define the rules with the institution’s statute and other instruments. Higher education institutions have designated contact persons for students with special needs.

All educational institutions that enrol foreign students have appointed a person or have a service for international cooperation.

Measures can include:

• Priority in the selection process, in case of a cap on places in individual study programmes
• Priority in the selection process for student residential homes
• Modified provision of study programmes whereby students can progress and complete the studies later than scheduled but still maintain other student rights and benefits
• Provision of additional equipment and professional assistance to SEN students
• Rights of deaf and hard of hearing students to extra hours provided by sign language interpreters (100 hours annually), and to sign language interpreting for practical training, lectures and other study obligations at public institutions
• HVCs and higher education institutions schedule up to 10 % places for Slovenians without Slovenian citizenship and foreigners in a call for applications and organise learning of Slovenian for them;
• Personal assistance
• Assessment of knowledge at the basic level of general upper-secondary education in mathematics and English for persons under international protection who cannot provide proof of educational qualification previously attained; passing candidates may enrol in the first year of short-cycle tertiary or undergraduate study programmes, and
• Scholarships:
  • Need-based scholarship (extra benefit for SEN students)
  • Merit scholarships.

Disabled students are organised under the Disabled Students' Association of Slovenia. The association aims to stand and advocate for students with disabilities and implement programmes of assistance and other activities. Members of the association are physically disabled students, students with visual, hearing or speech impairment, and students with chronic or progressive illnesses or specific learning difficulties.