About this article
Article Category: Empirical Paper
Published Online: Sep 30, 2019
Page range: 230 - 249
Received: May 13, 2019
Accepted: Sep 10, 2019
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ijme-2019-0030
Keywords
© 2019 Andrzej Żurawski, published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.
Figure 1
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Education clusters identified by Amable
| Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, and Austria | Low number of higher education graduates |
| Finland | Various specific features |
| Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, and Ireland | Strong public education |
| Denmark, Sweden, and Norway | High expenditures per capita, high employment ratios |
| The United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, Australia, Korea, and Canada | Privately financed tertiary education |
Mean values of the valuables for the clusters: higher education
| UK, EST, CYP, LVA | LUX | FIN, IRL, FRA, GER, AUT, SWE, DEN, MLT, BEL, NED | CRO, ROM, HUN, CZE, SLO, SPA, SVK, BUL, POL, LTU, POR | GRE, ITA | |
| shortcycle_sharepublic | 0.17 | 1.00 | 0.70 | 0.84 | 0.00 |
| bachelor_sharepublic | 0.16 | 0.96 | 0.81 | 0.85 | 0.94 |
| master_sharepublic | 0.09 | 1.00 | 0.83 | 0.88 | 0.95 |
| doctoral_sharepublic | 0.18 | 1.00 | 0.95 | 0.95 | 0.98 |
| LLL_12M | 47.93 | 48.10 | 50.15 | 36.39 | 29.10 |
| students_abroad_tertiary | 0.13 | 0.47 | 0.10 | 0.05 | 0.04 |
| tertiary_pupils_to_teachers | 16.95 | 7.60 | 13.56 | 14.75 | 29.90 |
| tertiary_expperc_GDP | 1.33 | 0.51 | 1.58 | 0.94 | 0.75 |
| Enrollment_tertiary | 50.12 | 80.60 | 73.05 | 65.06 | 94.70 |
| alltertiary_share_Education | 7.90 | 11.00 | 8.52 | 8.10 | 4.40 |
| alltertiary_share_Humanities | 11.00 | 12.70 | 11.77 | 9.03 | 14.55 |
| alltertiary_share_social | 8.55 | 10.70 | 8.94 | 9.71 | 12.15 |
| alltertiary_share_business | 28.35 | 34.60 | 21.64 | 22.92 | 21.05 |
| alltertiary_share_sciences | 6.80 | 6.40 | 6.67 | 4.89 | 8.60 |
| alltertiary_share_ICT | 5.48 | 5.60 | 5.14 | 4.15 | 2.35 |
| alltertiary_share_Engineering | 12.98 | 9.10 | 13.46 | 18.00 | 18.85 |
| alltertiary_share_Agriculture | 1.45 | 1.00 | 1.37 | 2.98 | 3.45 |
| alltertiary_share_Health | 12.23 | 7.10 | 16.29 | 12.85 | 12.10 |
| alltertiary_share_Services | 4.75 | 1.70 | 3.28 | 6.53 | 1.40 |
Mean values of the valuables for the clusters: general education
| Countries in a cluster | IRL, GRE, ROM, LTU, CRO, POL | GER, NED, HUN, BUL, ITA, FRA, AUT, SLO, CZE, SVK | LUX, CYP, MAL, POR, SPA | EST, LVA | SWE, DEN, FIN | BEL, UK |
| preprmiary_public_share | 0.75 | 0.81 | 0.67 | 0.93 | 0.83 | 0.50 |
| primary_public_share | 0.97 | 0.94 | 0.80 | 0.92 | 0.91 | 0.63 |
| lowersec_sharepublic | 0.97 | 0.92 | 0.78 | 0.88 | 0.83 | 0.42 |
| uppersec_sharepublic | 0.95 | 0.87 | 0.80 | 0.90 | 0.87 | 0.30 |
| uppersec_shareVET | 0.39 | 0.56 | 0.32 | 0.50 | 0.50 | 0.56 |
| uppersec_shareVET_public | 0.98 | 0.86 | 0.88 | 0.94 | 0.86 | 0.23 |
| allstudents__sharepublic | 0.90 | 0.86 | 0.61 | 0.56 | 0.81 | 0.21 |
| shortcycle_sharepublic | 0.99 | 0.63 | 0.60 | 1.00 | 0.70 | 0.20 |
| bachelor_sharepublic | 0.89 | 0.86 | 0.60 | 0.59 | 0.77 | 0.22 |
| master_sharepublic | 0.92 | 0.87 | 0.57 | 0.50 | 0.92 | 0.20 |
| doctoral_sharepublic | 0.98 | 0.96 | 0.72 | 0.50 | 0.97 | 0.28 |
| LLL_12M | 22.22 | 48.74 | 44.28 | 46.05 | 56.10 | 48.65 |
| students_abroad_tertiary | 0.04 | 0.08 | 0.09 | 0.27 | 0.08 | 0.15 |
| teachers_shareofAP | 2.77 | 2.69 | 2.38 | 2.60 | 2.17 | 1.60 |
| preprimary_pupils_to_teachers | 12.50 | 13.45 | 13.58 | 10.05 | 8.70 | 16.25 |
| primary_pupils_to_teachers | 11.85 | 15.37 | 12.74 | 11.85 | 12.77 | 14.85 |
| lowersec_pupils_to_teachers | 9.12 | 11.71 | 9.18 | 10.40 | 10.80 | 11.90 |
| genuppersec_pupils_to_teachers | 11.75 | 12.68 | 8.30 | 10.50 | 13.30 | 12.40 |
| VETuppersec_pupils_to_teachers | 9.22 | 12.42 | 11.05 | 13.65 | 16.50 | 15.45 |
| tertiary_pupils_to_teachers | 19.98 | 15.78 | 14.80 | 10.75 | 12.07 | 16.60 |
| publicedu_expperc_GDP | 3.82 | 4.61 | 5.22 | 4.38 | 6.90 | 6.06 |
| preprimary_expperc_GDP | 0.37 | 0.58 | 0.51 | 0.46 | 1.10 | 0.48 |
| primary_expperc_GDP | 1.04 | 0.95 | 1.51 | 1.24 | 1.76 | 1.72 |
| lowsec_expperc_GDP | 0.76 | 0.95 | 0.98 | 0.69 | 1.06 | 0.87 |
| uppersec_expperc_GDP | 0.65 | 0.96 | 1.02 | 0.78 | 1.53 | 1.57 |
| tertiary_expperc_GDP | 0.93 | 1.11 | 1.15 | 0.97 | 2.04 | 1.42 |
| primary_foreignlang | 1.00 | 0.77 | 0.94 | 1.45 | 0.90 | 0.40 |
| Enrollment_low_sec | 101.14 | 102.46 | 113.95 | 105.16 | 112.60 | 165.28 |
| Enrollment_post_sec | 42.67 | 20.75 | 10.38 | 21.12 | 22.39 | 52.52 |
| Enrollment_pre_prim | 78.25 | 96.38 | 98.66 | 94.95 | 91.10 | 113.49 |
| Enrollment_primary | 98.89 | 100.50 | 103.61 | 98.16 | 109.03 | 102.37 |
| Enrollment_tertiary | 76.19 | 66.80 | 55.63 | 76.00 | 77.20 | 67.65 |
| Enrollment_upper_sec | 107.01 | 108.38 | 110.11 | 121.60 | 170.91 | 151.73 |
| CompusloryEdu | 9.33 | 10.80 | 10.40 | 10.00 | 9.67 | 11.50 |
| EntranceAge | 6.50 | 5.50 | 5.20 | 6.00 | 6.33 | 5.50 |
| Teacher_sal | 0.90 | 0.96 | 1.17 | 1.26 | 1.00 | 1.04 |
Education clusters identified by SGH research team
| Germany, Austria, Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden, and Finland | High level of patent applications, high level of individuals’ Internet skills, medium–high turnover from innovation |
| The United Kingdom, Ireland, France, and Belgium | High level of employment in knowledge-intensive services, very high turnover from innovation, relatively low share of 15-year-old pupils performing weakly in PISA |
| Slovenia and Italy | Medium level of large part of characteristics: patents, employment in knowledge-intensive service, share of women in VET streams, and in research |
| Bulgaria, Estonia, Czech, Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Croatia, Greece, Spain, and Portugal | Low level of patent applications and patents granted, medium–high level of enrollment in tertiary education, comparatively low individuals’ level of Internet skills |
List of variables in a model
| Enrollment_low_sec | World Bank | 2016 | Gross enrollment ratio, lower secondary, both sexes (%) – percentage of students to respective age population, may be more than 100% |
| Enrollment_post_sec | World Bank | 2016 | Gross enrollment ratio, post-secondary non-tertiary, both sexes (%) – percentage of students to respective age population, may be more than 100% |
| Enrollment_pre_prim | World Bank | 2016 | Gross enrollment ratio, pre-primary, both sexes (%) – percentage of students to respective age population, may be more than 100% |
| Enrollment_primary | World Bank | 2016 | Gross enrollment ratio, primary, both sexes (%) – percentage of students to respective age population, may be more than 100% |
| Enrollment_tertiary | World Bank | 2016 | Gross enrollment ratio, tertiary, both sexes (%) – percentage of students to respective age population, may be more than 100% |
| Enrollment_upper_sec | World Bank | 2016 | Gross enrollment ratio, upper secondary, both sexes (%) – percentage of students to respective age population, may be more than 100% |
| CompusloryEdu | World Bank | 2017 | Duration of compulsory education (years) |
| EntranceAge | World Bank | 2017 | Official entrance age to compulsory education (years) |
| preprimary_public_share | Eurostat | 2016 | Share of pupils in pre-school education in public institutions |
| primary_public_share | Eurostat | 2016 | Share of pupils in primary education in public institutions |
| lowersec_sharepublic | Eurostat | 2016 | Share of pupils in public institutions – lower secondary |
| uppersec_sharepublic | Eurostat | 2016 | Share of pupils in public institutions – upper secondary |
| uppersec_shareVET | Eurostat | 2016 | Share of pupils in vocational programs – upper secondary |
| uppersec_shareVET_public | Eurostat | 2016 | Share of pupils in public institutions in vocational programs – upper secondary |
| shortcycle_sharepublic | Eurostat | 2016 | Share of students in public institutions – short-cycle tertiary |
| bachelor_sharepublic | Eurostat | 2016 | Share of students in public institutions – bachelor |
| master_sharepublic | Eurostat | 2016 | Share of students in public institutions – master |
| doctoral_sharepublic | Eurostat | 2016 | Share of students in public institutions – doctoral |
| LLL_12M | Eurostat | 2016 | Participation in education and training last 12 M |
| students_abroad_tertiary | Eurostat | 2016 | Share of students from abroad in all tertiary |
| teachers_shareofAP | Eurostat | 2016 | Classroom teachers working full-time and part-time in primary, lower-secondary and upper-secondary education – as% of total active population [Czechia, Denmark, and Ireland NA] |
| preprimary_pupils_to_teachers | Eurostat | 2016 | Pupils to teachers ratio – preprimary [Denmark, UK 2014, Estonia 2015] |
| primary_pupils_to_teachers | Eurostat | 2016 | Pupils to teachers ratio – primary [Denmark 2014, Ireland 2014] |
| lowersec_pupils_to_teachers | Eurostat | 2016 | Pupils to teachers ratio – lower secondary [Denmark 2014, Ireland NA] |
| genuppersec_pupils_to_teachers | Eurostat | 2016 | Pupils to teachers ratio – general upper secondary [Ireland, Portugal 2013] |
| VETuppersec_pupils_to_teachers | Eurostat | 2016 | Pupils to teachers ratio – vocational upper secondary [Ireland, Portugal NA] |
| tertiary_pupils_to_teachers | Eurostat | 2016 | Pupils to teachers ratio – tertiary [Denmark, Portugal, UK 2014] |
| publicedu_expperc_GDP | Eurostat | 2015 | Public expenditure on education as percentage of GDP |
| preprimary_expperc_GDP | Eurostat | 2015 | Public expenditure on pre-primary education as percentage of GDP |
| primary_expperc_GDP | Eurostat | 2015 | Public expenditure on primary education as percentage of GDP |
| lowsec_expperc_GDP | Eurostat | 2015 | Public expenditure on lower secondary education as percentage of GDP |
| uppersec_expperc_GDP | Eurostat | 2015 | Public expenditure on upper secondary education as percentage of GDP |
| tertiary_expperc_GDP | Eurostat | 2015 | Public expenditure on tertiary education as percentage of GDP |
| primary_foreignlang | Eurostat | 2015 | Foreign languages learned – primary |
| lowsec_foreignlang | Eurostat | 2015 | Foreign languages learned – lower secondary |
| Teacher_sal | OECD | 2017 | Teachers’ statutory salaries after 10 years of experience, average of primary, lower secondary and upper secondary, as a percentage of average salary in the economy |
| alltertiary_share_Education | Eurostat | 2016 | Share of all tertiary students, who are enrolled in programs in the field of education |
| alltertiary_share_Humanities | Eurostat | 2016 | Share of all tertiary students, who are enrolled in programs in the field of arts and humanities |
| alltertiary_share_social | Eurostat | 2016 | Share of all tertiary students, who are enrolled in programs in the field of social sciences, journalism, and information |
| alltertiary_share_business | Eurostat | 2016 | Share of all tertiary students, who are enrolled in programs in the field of business, administration, and law |
| alltertiary_share_sciences | Eurostat | 2016 | Share of all tertiary students, who are enrolled in programs in the field of natural sciences, mathematics, and statistics |
| alltertiary_share_ICT | Eurostat | 2016 | Share of all tertiary students, who are enrolled in programs in the field of information and communication technologies |
| alltertiary_share_Engineering | Eurostat | 2016 | Share of all tertiary students, who are enrolled in programs in the field of engineering, manufacturing, and construction |
| alltertiary_share_Agriculture | Eurostat | 2016 | Share of all tertiary students, who are enrolled in programs in the field of agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and veterinary |
| alltertiary_share_Health | Eurostat | 2016 | Share of all tertiary students, who are enrolled in programs in the field of health and welfare |
| alltertiary_share_Services | Eurostat | 2016 | Share of all tertiary students, who are enrolled in programs in the field of services |
Education clusters identified by Farkas
| Austria, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Slovenia | High enrollment ratio and high employment rate of graduates, very large number adults in Lifelong Learning (LLL), highest expenditures per capita in relation to GDP |
| Italy, Spain, and Portugal | High enrollment in tertiary education and – at the same time – high proportion of low-qualified population, participation in LLL lower than in cluster 1, but higher than in 3 and 4 |
| Belgium, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, France, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, Hungary, and Romania | Fewer participants in VET and LLL than average, spending on education below average, rates of employment slightly below average |
| Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Poland, Germany, and Slovakia | Smallest proportion of low-qualified people, smallest public spending on education, with highest private spending (in relation to GDP) |
Higher education clusters
| UK, Estonia, Latvia, and Cyprus | Low share students in public institutions (in doctoral programs = 0%) |
| Luxembourg | Very high number of students abroad |
| Finland, Ireland, France, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Denmark, Malta, Belgium, and Netherlands | Above average expenditures on tertiary education, high number of students in health, and low number in agriculture |
| Croatia, Romania, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Poland, Lithuania, and Portugal | Very high number of students in agriculture program, high in services, and engineering programs |
| Greece and Italy | Very high ratio of students to teachers |
Comparison of clusters of education systems in EU
| DEN, FIN, | DEN, FIN, GER, | BUL, CZE, FRA, GER, HUN, ITA, | |
| EST, FRA, GRE, HUN, IRL, LTU, LVA, LUX, ROM | CRO, FRA, IRL, UK | UK | |
| AUT, | |||
| NA | BEL, FRA, IRL, UK | GRE, IRL, LTU, POL, ROM | |
| NA | NA | LUX, MLT, POR, SPA | |
| AUT, | |||
| AUT, | AUT, | ||
| BEL, FRA, GRE, HUN, IRL, LTU, | BUL, CZE, GRE, HUN, LTU, | ||
| AUT, | AUT, | ||
| BEL, EST, GRE, HUN, IRL, LTU, LVA, LUX, ROM | BEL, CRO, IRL, UK | AUT, BUL, CZE, GER, HUN, ITA, NED, SLO, SVK | |
| BUL, CZE, POL, SVK | AUT, DEN, FIN, NED, SWE | AUT, BUL, CZE, FRA, HUN, ITA, NED, SLO, SVK | |
| BEL, EST, FRA, HUN, IRL, LTU, LVA, LUX, | BUL, CZE, EST, HUN, | CRO, IRL, | |
| BEL, EST, FRA, GRE, IRL, LTU, LVA, LUX, ROM | BUL, CZE, EST, GRE, LTU, LVA, POL, POR, ROM, SPA, SVK | AUT, BUL, CZE, FRA, GER, ITA, NED, SLO, SVK | |
| BEL, EST, FRA, GRE, HUN, LTU, LVA, LUX, ROM | BEL, CRO, FRA, UK | CRO, GRE, LTU, POL, ROM | |
| POR, SPA | SLO, | AUT, BUL, CZE, FRA, GER, HUN, NED, SLO, SVK | |
| BEL, EST, FRA, | BUL, CZE, EST, | CRO, GRE, IRL, POL, | |
| BEL, | BUL, CZE, | ||
| BEL, EST, FRA, GRE, HUN, IRL, LTU, LVA, ROM | NA | CYP, MLT, POR, SPA | |
| NA | NA | CYP, LUX, POR, SPA | |
| BUL, CZE, GER, SVK | BUL, CZE, EST, GRE, HUN, LTU, LVA, POR, ROM, SPA, SVK | CRO, GRE, IRL, LTU, ROM | |
| ITA, | BUL, CZE, EST, GRE, HUN, LTU, LVA, POL, ROM, | CYP, LUX, MLT, | |
| BEL, EST, FRA, | BUL, CZE, EST, | CRO, GRE, IRL, | |
| AUT, DEN, FIN, NED, SWE, UK | ITA | AUT, BUL, CZE, FRA, GER, HUN, ITA,NED, SVK | |
| ITA, | BUL, CZE, EST, GRE, HUN, LTU, LVA, POL, | CYP, LUX, MLT, | |
| AUT, | |||
| AUT, | AUT, | ||
| AUT, DEN, FIN, NED, SLO, SWE | BEL, CRO, FRA, IRL | BEL |
Comparison of results of PISA survey and the clusters
| Countries in a cluster | IRL, GRE, ROM, LTU, CRO, POL | GER, NED, HUN, BUL, ITA, FRA, AUT, SLO, CZE, SVK | LUX, CYP, MAL, POR, SPA | EST, LVA | SWE, DEN, FIN | BEL, UK |
| Science | 474 | 487.9 | 475 | 512 | 508.67 | 505.5 |
| Reading | 481.17 | 482.8 | 473 | 503.5 | 508.67 | 498.5 |
| Mathematics | 474.67 | 489.3 | 476 | 501 | 505.33 | 499.5 |
Education system clusters
| Ireland, Greece, Romania, Lithuania, Croatia, and Poland | Higher entrance age to compulsory education |
| Germany, Netherlands, Hungary, Bulgaria, Italy, France, Austria, Slovenia, Czech Republic, and Slovakia | High ratio of pupils to teachers in primary and secondary education |
| Luxembourg, Cyprus, Malta, Portugal, and Spain | High number of students abroad |
| Estonia and Latvia | Very low number of students in tertiary education in public institutions with most other characteristics relatively close to Scandinavian countries |
| Sweden, Denmark, and Finland | Very high expenditures on education in relation to GDP (at all levels, most significantly in pre-primary education) |
| Belgium and the United Kingdom | Very high expenditures on secondary education in relation to GDP |