Slovenian researchers’ labour market remains relatively closed due to the internal restrictions, i.e. compensation limitations due to the classification of researchers (HEIs and PROs) as public employees, where salaries have to follow Public Sector Salary System Act and collective agreements for all public sector employees and specific collective agreements for RDI employees. In the case of HEI one of the requirements for the employment is also the active knowledge of Slovenian language.60 All-in-all it can be said that albeit the Slovenian RDI labour market is officially deregulated, there are some formal and informal barriers to the recruitment of researchers.
All-in-all it is possible to say that the employment procedures of RDI staff are quite simple in the case of business enterprises, while quite complicated in HEIs or PROs. In the case of PROs and HEIs there should be a public call for a vacant post. The decision to employ a new RDI employee has to be adopted at the level of the University office (rector) and university supervisory board. If they do not agree with the proposal of an individual faculty/department, there is no appointment of new RDI personnel. In case of PROs the selection process is more alleviated and depends on available funds. However, here the final word is left to the directors of the institutes or heads of projects in case of provided international funding. The situation is similar in the business sector, where the directors have the authority to decide whether the candidate would be appropriate or not.
In the case of HEIs and PROs the process starts with the publication of job vacancy on a relevant national online platform, in 2014 the PROs and HEIs intensified the publication of job vacancies also on relevant Europe-wide online platforms, including the EURAXESS portal (in the case of University of Ljubljana this is obligatory from August 2014 onwards). Vacancy announcements of public research and higher education institutions include the job profile, skills and competencies required, and eligibility criteria.61 Together with job advert the relevant institutions publish the selection criteria. They regulate a minimum time period between vacancy publication and the deadline for applying and offer institutions the right to receive adequate feedback and the right to appeal (Deloitte, 2012). The selection panel is set-up after the end of the time provided (its composition is not
60 By Law, teaching of compulsory courses can only be in Slovenian language. 61 However, not all of the job vacancies are published in English.
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public)62 by the advert and decides on the applications. The selection panel decides only on who the most appropriate candidate is. Whether there are two or more, they leave the final decision to the head of the department or to other relevant stake-holders. After the adoption of the final decision, the non-selected candidates are informed only that they have not been selected. They have the right to appeal and they have the possibility to look into their assessment made by the expert commission). However they are not allowed to have a look in other candidates’ files. After the decision on the selection is adopted, the rector/head of the institute signs the contract with the selected person.
The described process is quite straight-forward in cases when all applicants come from the same University or PROs, but becomes more complicated when there is a candidate (or more) from different universities or PROs or even from abroad. When there is such case the first step after the submission of application is the process of verification of the habilitation standards. A special commission from the scientific field is appointed to decide whether the applicants qualify in accordance with the habilitation of the institution where they seek employment. After this decision has been adopted the candidate(s) who qualify are evaluated according to the procedure described above.
With regard to career development, in 2010, all Slovenian universities have established career counselling centres. Also, some of other higher education institutions have followed the example. The establishment was supported under the special public call of ex-Ministry for Higher Education, Science and Technology (today’s MESS) with the co-financing from ESF.63 The career centres organise various workshops for the students, contacts with potential employees and advisory service.
Although the RDI system in Slovenia can be as a whole assessed as open, transparent and merit-based, there are some barriers which should be eliminated to enhance the attractiveness of the national RDI system. Firstly, the system should become more internationalized. An important step forward in this direction could be the alleviation of the salary-system for foreign researchers, obtaining their own grant or external funds. Secondly, the RDI system should become more attractive to foreign and domestic researchers if the contracts would allow not only temporary but also a more permanent type of contract. However this is constrained by the funding of RDI, mostly on a competitive-basis. Thirdly, the current economic crisis opened the issue of precarious workers in RDI sector, which was not really an issue prior to the crisis. The decrease of employment in public RDI because of the austerity measures and the increase of temporary contracts, especially for younger researchers (based on the time-frame of projects) opened the debate on the future developments of the Slovenian RDI system. As in other EU, the main burden of the temporary contracts and precarious working conditions concerns the young(er) generation of researchers.
62 In most cases the members of the selection panels are national experts. In the case of University of
Ljubljana the selection panel is composed by three members: one being from the faculty which published the job advert, the next being from one of the faculties of University of Ljubljana, while the third should be employed outside the University of Ljubljana. However it is important that all the members of the selection commission have at least the same academic title as announced in the job advert (e.g. if the vacancy is for professor, all three members of the selection commission should be full professors).
63 More available at
http://www.mizs.gov.si/fileadmin/mizs.gov.si/pageuploads/razpisi/Visoko_solstvo/Karierni_centri/Predstavitev_ KC.pdf (15 February 2015)
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