Foreign students seen as key to health of Hungarian universities

Universities and colleges outside Budapest are preparing for a downturn in the number of Hungarian students; their best hope of survival is to attract more students from abroad, Nepszabadsag daily said on Monday.

The paper said that it has been common knowledge for a long time that there is an over-supply of higher education institutions in Hungary. Politicians such as Lajos Bokros, a one-time finance minister, have been calling for radical cutbacks, arguing that precious resources should be channeled to the big universities while the rest should be scrapped. But successive governments have shied away from making any radical cutbacks, preferring instead to direct extra funding to better-performing universities, said the paper.

Universities and colleges in cities such as Szeged, Miskolc, Nyiregyhaza and Eger secure employment to thousands of local residents, partly through the services that students use. If the number of students drops and the universities are forced to close, this will shake local economies, the paper said, citing a study by consultancy firm AAM.

Foreign students are a boon since for every ten paying students, two jobs at the university are financed indirectly. Their spending on food and amenities is also significant. Hungarian students at Debrecen and Szeged universities pay 40,000 forints (EUR 150) a month for local services while international students spend between 140,000 forints and 180,000 forints.

However, in order to attract more international students to Hungary, universities must offer more courses in English and more beds must be made available in local halls of residence, according to the study. Moreover, Asian students often end up studying in the Czech Republic, Romania and Slovenia instead of Hungary because of simpler visa application procedures, the paper said.

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