Slovakia

Basic Information about Slovakia

The Slovak Republic (increasingly referred to as Slovakia), is a landlocked country at the centre of Continental Europe, bound by Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Ukraine. In the north and northeast, Slovakia is flanked by the Carpathian Mountains. Hilly terrain takes up over 33% of the country’s territory. Slovakia has a population of 5.4 million. The official language is Slovak, and Hungarian and Czech are widely spoken as well. The country’s capital is Bratislava.

The Higher Education System

Slovakia has public, state-financed, and private higher educational institutions. In all, 19 public institutions of higher learning, including nine traditional universities, three technological universities, three institutes of art and music, one institute of economics, one university of veterinary medicine, and one agricultural university, are in operation at present. The state-financed institutions include two military academies, one police academy, and one university of medicine. Under Slovakia’s current Higher Education Law, its institutions of higher learning offer three levels of higher education: the first level ends with the award of Bachelor’s degree (Bakalár) to graduates; the second level gives a full higher education in three degrees – Master (Magister), Engineer (Inzinier), and Doctor of Medicine (Doktor Mediciny); and the third level is completed with a Doctorate (Doctorate or PhD).

Scholarships

The Government of the Slovak Republic has established a national scholarship programme for the support of mobility of students, PhD students, university teachers, and researchers under the terms of MINERVA programme. MINERVA is the official governmental programme for the development of knowledge-based economy in Slovakia. The aim of MINERVA is to pursue activities to support development of the knowledge-based economy in Slovakia. These activities focus on four basic areas: science, R&D, and innovations; education and employment; business environment; and information society.

The following types of scholarships are available:

• Scholarships for foreign university students to take part in master’s (graduate) study over a period of one to two semesters (from 5 to 10 months) at Slovak universities
  
  
• Scholarships for foreign PhD students to undertake a portion of their PhD studies over a period of 1 to 12 months at Slovak universities or research institutes of the Slovak Academy of Sciences
  
  
• Scholarships for foreign university teachers and researchers over a period of 1 to 12 months to carry out teaching or research at Slovak universities, research institutes, or nongovernmental organisations on the basis of an invitation