As reported by vg.hu, there are over 33,000 foreign students studying in Hungarian higher education. This figure was at 23,000 in 2015, which put the proportion of foreign students at Hungarian universities to 12%. In 2019, the statistic rose to 16.5%, with 10,000 of these students studying medicine at four medical universities.
The rise in the number of foreign students is understandable; each year more and more courses are offered in English. Indeed, at the Corvinus University of Budapest, 6 out of 13 undergraduate courses and 12 out of 23 master’s courses can be taken in English. The university wants to further increase its number of foreign students threefold by 2030. Their project also hopes to encourage Hungarians who live outside of the country to apply.
At the Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), the proportion of foreign students studying at the institution increased from 11% to 13% in the last few years. These students usually study courses such as programming, computer science, psychology, international relations and economics.
ELTE focuses its foreign recruitment in regions of the world that are east of the country, mainly Asia, Turkey and Russia.
Other universities with a significant proportion of foreign students include the Universities of Pécs and Debrecen.
Hungarian universities are also a viable option for Western students who do not want to pay the colossal tuition fees in their home country. Hungarian educational institutions not only have cheaper tuition fees, but living costs are also lower, which is especially important for students.
It will be interesting to see what proportion of these foreign students will choose to settle and find employment in Hungary after their graduation.
We wrote that Debrecen is the most expensive Hungarian city for higher education in the countryside. Well-off Hungarians also pay a fortune for their children’s schooling.