TOL Hungary

Going to University

July 29th, 2007 by robertnemeth

If you want to go to a (state) university in Hungary, you do not need to pass an entrance exam any more. Whether you will be accepted or not depends on how you performed in high school. You receive points for your grades - the limits that you can enter universities with became public earlier this week. Since Hungarian higher educational system is worth some thoughts, this gives a good occasion to it.

One can have maximum 144 points - exactly so many are needed to get in to some universities, for instance if someone wants to study Communication or Eastern Languages at ELTE or International Economics at the Corvinus University. Let’s drop Eastern Languages, there are only a few places, so, you will have to be really good to get in. We should rather take a look at the departments of communication.

Years ago, economics and legal studies were the favorites among the applicants. Recently, communication (meaning some kind of Media Studies) joined them as well. The result: now, every year, more than 1,000 students graduate with a degree in Communication. If someone thinks logically, he or she can ask: why? Is there such a need for, let’s say, journalists? Obviously not. Most of these students want to “work in the media”, meaning: they want to see themselves on the screens. Since there are too many of them, and the education at some of the universities is quite poor (not only in these departments), they cannot manage it. So, for five years, they studied for nothing. To be a bit populist: they spent the money of the taxpayers for nothing.

Furthermore, more than 80,000 students were admitted this year, out of 109,000 applicants. For almost ten years, politicians tend to say that their aim is that half of the people in a generation should have a diploma. Some experts debate that it is a good idea, but there is a bigger problem. There are more and more complaints by companies that they cannot find enough people with sufficient professional knowledge. Letting thousands of students studying communication will definitely not solve this problem. Since universities receive money for each students they accept, it is not in their interests to cut the students of these departments. We can still hope that after a while everyone will realize that it is not so easy to have a job “in the media”, and a new trend will emerge in the applications. Let’s also hope that the new Bologna system will help in this and those who will have their BA will also obtain some applicable knowledge with it.

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