Several hundred university students and tutors took part at a forum on Monday evening on the planned abolishment of several BA programmes at the Faculty of Social Sciences at Budapest’s Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE). Speaking at the forum, the university’s rector Barna Mezey said that the porposals released on Friday that include the abolishment of several degrees are stillsubject to negotiations. As the leader of the university, he is obliged to represent students and ELTE’s traditions, as well as “all those programmes where the country’s best students study”.
A forum was also held at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) in protest of the planned abolishment of the BA programme in industrial design engineering. After the gathering at ELTE ended, students joined with protesters at BME, marching by Corvinus University and ELTE’s Faculty of Letters before reaching the Ministry of Human Resources, where the demonstration ended.
Following the demonstration, State Secretary for higher education László Palkovics said that contrary to earlier plans, degrees in communications and media studies will not be abolished and the proposal on discontinuing BA programmes in international relations and social studies is only a draft and the government is open to debate.
Last Friday, it was announced that the government is planning to discontinue or restructure several popular university programmes, including BAs in international relations.
via mandiner.hu
photo: hvg.hu/Ákos Stiller