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At the opening ceremony of the academic year of the Ferenc Rákóczi II Transcarpathian Hungarian College of Higher Education in Ukraine, Minister of Culture and Innovation János Csák said that Hungary supports and will support culture and institutions that transmit culture “wherever Hungarians live in the world.”
At the opening ceremony of the academic year, traditionally held in the Reformed Church in Berehove (Beregszász), István Csernicskó, the rector of the college, said that he was optimistic about the future, as the central opening of the academic year in Transcarpathian Hungarian schools had filled the house of God everywhere. Despite the war in Ukraine, the college’s popularity among young people in Transcarpathia is undiminished, and its development is unbroken thanks to Hungarian government support. In this year’s application period, 1,086 students applied to the college, 523 of whom were able to start their studies in various fields, and the total number of students is 1,371, noted István Csernicskó.
In his speech, János Csák, quoting the Hungarian poet and writer Mihály Babits, said that God, family, and homeland are “spiritual phenomena and spiritual heritage that we want to carry forward.”
The Hungarian government supports and will support “the institutions that transmit culture, Hungarian families, Hungarian schools and universities, and our churches,”
he emphasized.
The minister made it clear that “this is not something for the Hungarian government to do for pleasure, but a duty.”
Addressing the first-year students, Csák pointed out that in ten to twenty years they would be the leaders of the Hungarian community in Transcarpathia. He added that the graduates of the college will contribute not only to the prosperity of the Hungarian national community, but also to the prosperity of Ukraine, because “an educated person produces more economic benefits.”
Viktor Mikita, the head of the Transcarpathian military administration,
thanked Hungary for its help in providing thousands of Ukrainian children with holiday resorts and for its continued humanitarian support to the whole Ukrainian people, including the education sector.
At the opening ceremony, the Rákóczi Prize, founded by the college, was awarded annually to one foreigner and one Transcarpathian for their outstanding contribution to the development of the college. This year, the highest honor of the college was awarded to János Csák and Vasil Roszul, former head of the Transcarpathian County Department of Education and Science.
Via MTI, Featured image: MTI/Nemes János