Student youth in Slovenia: In search of a future

In the article, we are presenting the research results about social position of the student youth, which were obtained in 2008 on the sample of 3008 students, and we are comparing them with selected data from a similar research, carried out in 1995 on a sample of 1829 students in Slovenia. We are analyzing results in light of contemporary conditions of uncertainty and risks, which are being significantly deepened and intensified by the current economic recession. We are reflecting on the increasing competitiveness and marketization of tertiary education, which is in contradiction not only with the enlightenment concept of knowledge production and dissemination, but also with the demands and absorptive capacity of the labour market. Therefore, we are asking ourselves whether students today are still an avant-garde of social progress and if so, whether new students’ movements, similarly to those from 60s and 70s of the preceding century, are announcing a social change based on a new emerging ethics of duties towards oneself.