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Today, more Hungarian universities are among the best in the world than a few years ago. This progress is the result of the renewal of Hungarian higher education, aiming to link universities with the economy and regional players. The result is a more competitive, flexible, predictable, and autonomous university model that reinforces Hungarian cultural values, reports Magyar Nemzet.
In recent years, the change of university model has led to a successful competitiveness turnaround in Hungarian higher education. Eleven Hungarian universities are now in the top five percent of the world’s nearly 30,000 universities, according to Times Higher Education, one of the most respected international rankings, measuring teaching, research, internationalization, marketization, and recognition performance of the institutions.
Funding for Hungarian higher education has doubled since 2022, with universities receiving forty percent of this amount this year, based on performance and quality thresholds in international rankings. Thanks to this,
the number of students dropping out of university early has fallen by almost three percent in the past year.
In addition, more and more high-quality research is being carried out in the institutions. The number of publications of high international quality has increased by seventy-eight percent in the last four years, and the number of patent applications has also increased significantly, quadrupling since 2018. Hungarian higher education has an outstanding capacity to attract international students, with
forty-two thousand foreign students currently studying in Hungary.
An increasing number of people want to benefit from the success of higher education, with 94,785 people gaining admission to higher education institutions this year thanks to the most successful admission period of the last decade.
Outstanding results were achieved in technical, engineering, IT, agricultural, and teacher training. The number of students admitted to universities in rural areas increased significantly, as did the number of students from disadvantaged regions. Eight out of ten students continue to study with state scholarships, with the government contributing an average of HUF six million (EUR 15,499).
The government aims to have at least one Hungarian university in the top 100 in the world and at least three in the top 100 in the European Union by 2030.
However, Brussels is attacking this competitiveness turnaround by discriminatorily restricting the participation of model-changed universities in international exchange programs and research. As we reported earlier, news came in January that Hungarian universities that operate as public trust foundations or are maintained by such foundations will not receive fresh grants from the EU-funded Erasmus+ exchange and Horizon Europe research and innovation programs. So far, there is still no agreement between the European Commission and the Hungarian government on the contentious issues, and the programs are currently financed by the government.
In the interests of the nation and the Hungarian economy,
the government is committed to the development of universities, and will therefore provide the necessary operational and development resources and strengthen internationalization programs to enable more Hungarian students and teachers to participate in international exchange programs and research at prestigious universities.
It will also make universities increasingly attractive not only for Hungarian students but also for international students, thus strengthening the development of the Hungarian economy.
Via Magyar Nemzet, Featured image via Facebook/Budapesti Corvinus Egyetem
