HUNGARY: Students protest higher education bill

More than 1,000 students protested against the government's new higher education concept in front of the University of Debrecen in eastern Hungary last week. The students gathered in protest against cuts in funding and an expected curtailment of student rights and autonomy, reports Politics.hu.

Hungary's higher education sector is set to see its budget reduced by HUF30 billion (US$140.7 million) next year, according to the government's latest budget plans, Jozsef Bodis, president of the Hungarian Conference of Rectors, said earlier at a conference. According to the daily Magyar Nemzet, the concept would forbid students to leave Hungary for a set number of years after receiving their degree.

"Small colleges that form the basis of academic training outside Budapest and large research universities will equally lose out on a general withdrawal of funds," Gergo Torok, a second-year student at the University of Debrecen, said. Whole intellectual centres may be wiped out if tuition fees are introduced for certain departments that will suffer as scapegoats, he added.
Full report on the Politics.hu site