Cluster analysis of higher-education competitiveness in selected European countries

The subject of research in this paper is higher-education competitiveness on account of its impact on the enhancement of social and economic competitiveness, as well as on the growth of human capital and creation of social knowledge. The purpose of this paper is to group the selected European countries according to higher-education competitiveness, by means of the hierarchical cluster analysis method, with a special focus on the position of Serbia. Higher-education competitiveness in the chosen countries is analysed by means of three indicators of competitiveness: the ratio of the number of students per number of inhabitants, the number of students per number of employed, as well as the amount of budgetary funds allocated per student. The research results indicate different higher-education competitiveness in the analysed countries and also the fact that, according to this analysis, Serbia is in the group of countries with low competitiveness of higher education.