More and more Hungarian students go abroad after high school

According to forbes.hu, Hungarian students are choosing to go to university abroad in growing numbers. Western Europe is the primary destination, with Austria, Germany and the UK being the most popular targets. Over 130 thousand Hungarian students are currently enrolled in higher education in other countries.

Collected data

Engame Academy prepared the professional evaluation about the number of Hungarian students studying at universities abroad. They used the data provided by Eurostat, OECD, UCAS and statistics from the US Institute of International Education. They also relied on the data available from the government.

According to Engame Academy’s findings,

Austria is the most popular destination, with 2600 Hungarian students studying there. Germany follows close with 2500 Hungarians. The UK also ranks high, with 2050 Hungarian students

and Denmark is pretty strong with 1400 Hungarians. The USA, the Netherlands and France have about the same number of Hungarians choosing their universities and even Australia has around 400 Hungarian students. It is clear from the evaluation that the number of students choosing to study abroad is increasing. In 2017, this increase was 12% compared to the previous year.

Brexit’s effect on students

According to Britains’s UCAS (Universities and Colleges Admissions Service) database, instead of continuing the upward rise,

last year brought an almost 3% drop in the number of Hungarians applying to UK universities, compared to 2016. This can most probably be attributed to the uncertainty surrounding Brexit.

However, in 2018, the British government announced that students starting the 2018/2019 academic year would still get the same assistance and favourable tuition fees as in the previous years. As a result, 2018 sees another spike in Hungarian students applying to UK universities, even exceeding the 2016 numbers.

In 2016, around 930 Hungarians applied to the UK. The next year, this dropped to 905 but this year already 950 Hungarians submitted applications to the UK.

Brexit most probably also played a role in the increase of applicants to Austria and Germany. Smaller tuition and more favourable living conditions also attract Hungarians to these countries. In 2017, this manifested itself in the number of applicants increasing by 19% to Austria and 22% to Germany.

Growing popularity among students

The Netherlands and Denmark as destinations are also increasingly popular. More and more students choose the Netherlands as their primary destination or as an alternative to studying in the UK. The 32% increase between 2013 and 2016 supports this observation. Denmark is more popular among postgraduate students, but the number of Hungarian students there still increased by 54% between 2013 and 2016.

An interesting observation emerging from Engame’a study is the growing popularity of ‘gap years’ in Hungary. Abroad, it has been customary for a long time that many students spend a year travelling and gaining experience after high school, instead of going to university straight away.

It is hard to predict what the future holds. However, previous experience and this year’s data already available from the UK suggests that this trend will not change anytime soon.

This is a popular topic because the time of acceptance to universities is approaching – check out our other article!

Featured image: MTI

Source: forbes.hu