THE ROLE OF TERTIARY EDUCATION IN REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN CONDITIONS OF SLOVAK REPUBLIC

Abstract

In addition to the infrastructure of the regions, an essential aspect of their development is their educational structure and the demographic potential according to the predominance of the age composition. The education is basic tool for acquiring expert knowledge, which affects human capital of the labor market and professional mobility and adaptability of human resources at the labor market. It is important to educate the university undergraduates for practice by using appropriate and suitable educational methods. In Slovakia the share of inhabitants with the university education is increasing. This group represents the development potential of the regions. Great possibilities consist in the training of a new generation of graduates for different fields of regional development. Therefore, the educational structure and also the active working and networking of universities with other actors in the region are important. The objective of this paper is focused on the tertiary education and study programs for the regional development. We will analyze the development of number of students at universities with regard to the individual levels of study (bachelor, engineer/master and PhD.) and study programs within the individual regions of the Slovak Republic. The evaluation of the obtained data will be made by using the methods of comparative statistics.