81 MARTINDALE CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF PRIVATE ENTERPRISE In the Balkans, and Croatia specifically, brain drain is prevalent in STEM-adjacent fields (Bosnjak Kuharic et al., 2023; Palijaš, 2024). Addressing this dynamic begins with identifying where the leak in the Croatian student–to–employed professional pipeline lies, which itself requires enumerating the contents of the pipeline, in this case Croatian students (Hornstein Tomic & Taylor, 2018). According to Croatian datasets, nearly 97% of all students graduate with a “scientific” degree (Croatian Bureau of Statistics, 2025); however, this staggering statistic relies on the datasets classifying humanities and social sciences as scientific disciplines (Palijaš, 2024). Applying the more traditional UNESCO/OECD definition of STEM reduces that figure to 47.2% (OECD, 2025; UNESCO, n.d.-b). The brain drain dynamics and STEM outflux in Croatia raise the question of whether Croatian secondary students who attend university abroad overwhelmingly pursue STEM degrees, further contributing to STEM brain drain. To date, there is no significant evidence of this movement; only 0.43% of Croatian bachelor’s degree students in 2023 studied in other European countries (Eurostat, 2025). With student mobility ruled out, the driver of STEM brain drain is postgraduate emigration. Educational satisfaction is a positive indicator of students’ desire to start their career in their home country (Petreska et al., 2023). Such satisfaction is derived from the value of the degree that students earn. If degrees do not lead to a viable career, students become dissatisfied (Petreska et al., 2023). Croatian students are generally satisfied with their lives (Pavić et al., 2025) but continue to desire more from their academic pursuits that the Croatian education system has yet to provide (OECD, 2025). The weak quality of STEM education in Croatia thus creates a negative feedback loop. Students become dissatisfied and migrate, accelerating deterioration of Croatia’s STEM industries, which in turn undermines the case for further investment in STEM education (Palijaš, 2024). The EU European Skills Agenda identifies increasing the number of STEM graduates as a priority for all member states, given their potential to stimulate economic growth (Dugandžić et al., 2023). The number of STEM graduates in Croatia has increased over the past decade (European Commission: Directorate-General for Education…, 2025; OECD, 2025; World Bank, 2024), but the economy will not benefit if STEM-trained Croatians continue to leave. The outflow of highly trained workers contributes to Croatia’s underperformance in STEM-related skills and digital literacy relative to EU averages (OECD, 2025; World Bank, 2024). Internal production of STEM graduates is a concern; at the same time, graduates need jobs they can fill. Calculating precise statistics is difficult due to varying definitions of STEM across datasets, but generally, the fewest job openings exist in Croatia’s industrial sector (Palijaš, 2024), which accounts for most STEM-related employment. Jobs can be created through entrepreneurial activity, yet entrepreneurship requires the technical expertise and innovation capacity that STEM education provides. STEM graduates leave if there are limited STEM jobs, and without those graduates, STEM businesses do not form and create more jobs (Palijaš, 2024). Hence, identifying the pressure points in the education-to-career trajectory is a central next step (Hornstein Tomic & Taylor, 2018). STEM education–to–career pipeline At the primary level, education is relatively standardized and nearly universally attended, but secondary schooling is more variable (European Commission, 2025). Students who pursue optional upper secondary education choose between gymnasium or vocational school, which locks students into specific tracks early. Gymnasiums focus on broad academic preparation for the state Matura, a national standardized exam that factors into tertiary education placement. Vocational schools offer more specialized training for specific careers aligned with labor market needs but do not prepare students for the Matura. Some vocational programs prepare students for STEM careers, but they are often the precursor to more hands-on technical roles without research components (Palijaš, 2024). In gymnasiums, students take biology, chemistry, and physics but may forgo one of those subjects to take an additional foreign language, a decision sometimes made before students have significant exposure to science. Vocational schools cover information technology and mathematics but not necessarily the natural sciences (European Commission, 2025). At the tertiary level, Croatian students have three options, based on their secondary school type and performance. Universities normally serve students educated through gymnasiums and offer a wide range of departments and programs (European Commission, 2025). Students can pursue bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees. Alternatively, secondary vocational schools feed into tertiary polytechnics and professional schools whose curricula prepare students for specific career paths (Cedefop & Agency for…, 2023). This system does not lend itself to flexibility (Palijaš, 2024). Students’ interests might change, but because of the type of secondary school they select, they cannot pivot. Strikingly, regardless of the qualifications set for applicants, some STEM university programs do not generate enough interest
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