Leftist opposition party launches referendum bid on free university tuition

The opposition Párbeszéd party is submitting a referendum initiative with a view to ensuring that university tuition in Hungary is free of charge, party board member Gábor Erőss told a press conference in front of the National Election Office building in Budapest on Friday.

Currently, students are required to pay a tuition fee unless they qualify for a state grant.

The party will submit the question:

“Do you agree that students of state-funded higher education courses should not pay for tuition?”

Erőss said that ruling Fidesz wants to “privatise” Budapest’s Corvinus University, to be followed by “all other institutions”, further restricting access to higher education in an “already very unfair system”.

On the surface the government is enhancing their autonomy while actually “putting public funds into the hands of Fidesz oligarchs”, he said.

Lawmaker Bence Tordai said that

the party’s proposal for a universal basic income would benefit university students, who would receive 3.6 million forints (EUR 11,000) over 5 years.

CORVINUS UNIVERSITY TO HAVE 4 MILLION TUITION FEE AND MORE FOREIGN STUDENTS

With 4 million forints of tuition fee per semester, Corvinus University of Budapest can easily become the University of rich people. From 2020, state-sponsored semesters will no longer be available, and everyone who would like to study at the university will have to pay, read more HERE.

Photo: Daily News Hungary – Alpár Kató

Source: MTI