In this chapter, you will find information about groups of students who are entitled by law to special support measures. They are students with special needs and students with special statuses. There is also a description of various types of support, as well as guidance and counselling to students for lifelong learning.

Definition of the target group(s)

• Students with special needs (by law: blind and visually impaired students, students with visual function disorder, deaf and students with hearing impairments, speech and language impairment, with physical disabilities, chronic illness or autistic spectrum disorder, and students with emotional and behavioural disorders)
• Slovenians without Slovenian citizenship and foreigners
• Students who are categorised as athletes and coaches, recognised artists and culture professionals
• Students who participate in international (subject-matter) student competitions
• Short-cycle higher education students in parallel studies
• Short-cycle tertiary students studying in parallel
• Students who become parents during their studies and until the school age of their child
• Students living in extraordinary family circumstances, and
• Socially deprived students.

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. The higher education institutions have contact persons in place 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 providing of study programmes whereby students can progress and complete the studies later as 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 application 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 organized 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.