According to a March report from the Eurydice Network, part of the European Commission’s Education, Audiovisual and Cultural Executive Agency, the financial crisis has led to educational (defined as primary, secondary, tertiary and adult education) budget cuts in 20 European countries/regions for which data was available in 2011 and 2012. However, nine countries increased their educational budgets during the period, and four countries (Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta, Turkey) raised them in real terms by more than 5%. For the 26 countries for which data were available, 16 countries reduced their tertiary and adult educational budgets at constant prices in 2011. However, 10 countries increased them, led by Turkey (10.5%) and Malta (10.6%). As for higher education infrastructure, four countries (Bulgaria, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania) decreased their number of higher education institutions between 2010 and 2012. Seven countries reduced capital expenditures for higher education between 2010 and 2012. Unrelated to the economic crisis, an additional seven countries closed or merged higher education institutions during the same period.

Source: Eurydice Network