Education, quality of education, quantitative indicators, European countries, clusteranalysis

Educational policies, and in broader context also economic discussions, address quality and efficiency of education. The paper aims to evaluate selected indicators of education quality, focusing on similarities and differences in European countries. The research selected quantitative indicators of education quality and was carried out for a selected set of 31 European countries in the period 2010-2017 with using hierarchical cluster analysis. Applying cluster analysis, the countries have been divided into four clusters according to internal similarity based on the evaluated indicators of education quality. The results showed the highest similarity between the clusters of countries by early leavers from education and training, tertiary education attainment and employment rates of recent graduates.By contrast, the results also proved differences between European countries, mainly by adult participation in learning and by employment rates of recent graduates. These differences are associated with not only the level of educational policies and quality of educational systems, but also economic and social possibilities of the individual countries.