Education paper by Novák, Tamás
Internationalization of the Hungarian Higher Education: Dilemmas, Challenges and Future Perspectives
Type of Abstract (select):Abstract (max. 250 words):
After the systemic changes in the late eighties, early nineties, the number of university students increased dynamically, reaching its peak with 380 000 students in 2006. This number has declined to 247 000 in the 2017-2018 academic year due to demographic causes and regulatory changes. As a result, the need for more active internationalization through recruiting foreign students emerged. The Hungarian higher education has been facing the challenges of internationalization for several years. Individual universities, however, were not at all prepared for this trend and only some institutions were able to accommodate students from a great variety of countries. Currently, various factors are pushing Hungarian universities to elaborate better strategies for internationalization. First, with ERASMUS funding, the number of European students in Hungary has nearly doubled in the past decade. Second, the Stipendium Hungaricum scholarship program – launched in 2012 in order to attract foreign students and push Hungarian Universities towards more openness – has brought thousands of student with diverse background to Hungary. Third, the global demand for study abroad opportunities has grown tremendously in recent years and has created more business opportunities for many countries. The paper argues that with some exemptions, universities in Hungary are still lacking the proper internationalization strategy and more targeted efforts are required to compete successfully with other countries. The study also investigates the challenges universities in Hungary are facing due to the global competition for international students.
Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Tamás Novák is the science and technology diplomat at the Consulate General of Hungary in New York. Until May 2018, he was the head of International Trade
Department and director of international relations at the Budapest Business School, University of Applied Sciences. During the 2013-2014 academic year Tamas was awarded an Austrian Marshall Plan fellowship at the School of Advanced International Studies, JHU, Washington DC. Earlier Tamas had been a senior researcher at the Institute for World Economics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He holds a PhD in international relations from Corvinus University of Budapest.