ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECT OF GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS ON EDUCATIONAL PATTERNS IN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES. STUDY ON EU-28 COUNTRIES.

The recent global financial and economic crisis has set up a certain pressure on the financing of education and training process, although providing highly qualified human resources represents a dimension of sustainability in economic development, a necessary condition for creating a competitive Europe. Economists came to the conclusion that quality education is the best protection against economic crisis. In this paper, the existing educational patterns in EU countries were analyzed, using statistical variables grouped in four pillars: 1st Pillar - Economic frame, 2nd Pillar - Education (Financial side), 3rd Pillar - Education (Non-Financial side) and 4th Pillar - Labour Market. For each of these pillars average relative distances were calculated, characterizing the relative performance of each European country relative to the country with maximum performance. It was made a hierarchy of European countries, before and after the global economic crisis and the changes between the two periods were analyzed.