Page 30 - RUICHSS 2023 Proceeding

University of Ruhuna ISSN: 2706-0063
Matara, Sri Lanka

in the higher education section that aim to enhance the social dimension of higher

education in Croatia. One of these tasks involves identifying underrepresented and
vulnerable groups in higher education, as well as examining the factors that

contribute to lower enrollment rates of students from these groups in higher
education.

This task was entrusted to the cross-sectoral National Group for the Improvement

of the Social Dimension of Higher Education. The group acts as an advisory body
to the Government of the Republic of Croatia, the Ministry of Science and
Education, the Rectors' Conference, and the Council of Universities and University

Colleges of Applied Sciences. Its establishment was supported by one of the
measures of the National Strategy.

Since its establishment in late 2015, the National Group has identified

underrepresented groups of students in higher education (students whose share of
higher education is lower compared to population data or compared to their share

in other countries of the European Union) and vulnerable groups of students
(students who have fewer opportunities in higher education compared to other
students, for example, in international mobility). The group has also identified

some of the factors that put these students at risk:

Students whose parents have a lower level of education:

In the EUROSTUDENT sample (Šćukanec et al., 2016), 5.1 % of students have
fathers with the lowest level of education, whereas in the population of men aged

40-60, 18.5 % have only primary education. Conversely, 34 % of fathers in the
sample have secondary or higher education, while their share in the total
population is 17 %. Typically, children of parents with a high level of education

xxix