Brexit to influence higher education in Hungary

It barely entered into effect, but Hungary can already feel the downside of Brexit. It seems that Hungarian students feel less attracted by the universities of the United Kingdom despite those being very popular in the past years – according to a brand-new representative survey made by Engame Akadémia.

As we wrote it last week, the Brexit deal is done and ready to enter into force. With the first day of the year, it is already causing turbulences, as expected. As the United Kingdom decided to withdraw from the Erasmus program, Hungarian students will need to look for other possibilities to study abroad. Alternatives can be those countries that also provide high-quality education but with much favourable financial conditions. 

In the 2019/2020 academic year, around 15 thousand Hungarian students studied in higher-education abroad, whereas, according to the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH), 24 thousand people continued their studies outside of the country, 6% of the total number of those enrolled in the higher education system.

There are no statistics yet about this upcoming 2020/2021 academic year, but last year’s 4% increase in the number of students is expected to keep growing. We know the number of those who applied to higher education in Hungary in 202, and that can give us a bit of perspective, and that number shows a decrease. Almost 20 thousand fewer students decided to apply to a university in Hungary, which can also mean that a part of this was planning to study abroad – said Balázs Lévai, co-founder and manager of Engame Akadémia to Világgazdaság.hu.

Universities of Austria and Germany are among the most popular ones; however, the United Kingdom has produced an incredibly dynamic growth over the past years in terms of popularity in higher education. The past decade tripled the number of those students who wished to deepen their academic knowledge in a foreign university, which is not very surprising if we consider the prestige and standards of British universities.

Brexit, however, draws up a completely different image.