HUNGARY: Hungary in chaos over higher education plans

Since the current Hungarian government came into power in 2010, changes in the education system have been generally characterised by centralisation, state control, over-regulation and questioning of the role of the intelligentsia and the importance of higher education.

Students are now only required to stay in school until age 16 (down from 18), schools are being nationalised, the regulation of curricula has been strengthened to tie the hands of schools and teachers, and national curricula have been rewritten to promote the government’s ideology.

This means that the special curricula of schools that work with disadvantaged children (the government has also cut funding for these schools) and the curricula of great institutions for gifted students will be relegated to the dustbin, or will at least be rewritten according to the wishes of government.



The remuneration of teachers, like that of others working in the public sector, is very low and has decreased with the reforms.

In 2011, the number of government scholarships was massively cut, which led to a 25% drop in the number of higher education applicants in 2012. Students on government scholarships now have to sign a contract in which they promise they will work in Hungary for twice the length of their course within 20 years.

The only European country with a similar contract is Belarus, but even there students have to spend fewer years in the country after graduation. Tying graduates to Hungary obviously violates one of the basic principles of the European Union, namely the free movement of labour.

Cuts

Budget cuts have been ongoing and drastic. The 2012 government funding for higher education was only half of the 2008 figure.

At the same time, the government is proposing the appointment of chancellors at universities. Chancellors would report directly to the government, suggesting that their role would be to coordinate lay-offs and close down institutions. The government also wants to increase its influence over the appointment of university presidents.

The government has stated on numerous occasions that in the longer term, higher education should be ‘self-financing; that is, the government wants to cut all funding for higher education. This is not only impossible and catastrophic, considering Hungarian circumstances, but also internationally unprecedented.

Protests

The government announced on 5 December that it would only fund 10,480 student places this year, down from over 44,000 in 2011.

This led to nationwide protests beginning on 10 December, with student and faculty meetings at various universities, the occupation of government offices, and a meeting of several thousand people in the faculty of social sciences at the University of Budapest, where participants formulated ‘students’ six points’:


    We demand the complete reform of public and higher education.
    The number of government-funded places should be reinstated to the 2011 level.
    Stop budget cuts and compensate previous cuts.
    Abolish the student contracts.
    Do not limit the autonomy of universities.
    Give a chance to disadvantaged students to enter higher education.


After agreeing on the six points, the several thousand participants decided that as a response to the hopeless situation they would take to the streets and block traffic in Budapest by occupying the nearby Petofi bridge.

People stayed on the bridge for a while, and later decided to walk towards parliament, across the city. In the chilly December weather, people finally went home late at night after also occupying the Chain bridge.

In the days that followed, several similar protests were held with even more protesters in the capital, while in other towns there were demonstrations organised by university and high-school students. A map of the protests and events is available here.

University meetings and protests were organised by activists of the Student Network – Hallgatói Hálózat, or HaHa. HaHa is a non-governmental organisation that does not have any leaders or hierarchy, but is instead based on grassroots democratic principles.

HaHa first appeared in 2006 to protest against plans to close universities. It gathered more support in 2011 and 2012 as the situation became critical, with cuts in the number of government-funded seats and unfair student contracts.

However, not only did university leaders and official student unions not support the demonstrations until the end of 2012; they regularly spoke out against them and tried to prevent them.

Publications by HaHa and other organisations protesting against the destruction of the education system, demanding attention, addressing serious problems and proposing some solutions, were neglected and the government refused to respond.

With the announcement of further drastic cuts in late 2012 the situation changed.

Marches were supported by the official National Conference of Student Governments – Hallgatói Önkormányzatok Országos Konferenciája, or HÖOK. On 10 December, HÖOK also took part in organising events.

On 17 December, the National Higher Education Forum – Országos Felsooktatási Egyezteto Fórum, or OFEF – was founded by the Faculty Network, HaHa, HÖOK and the Hungarian University Presidents’ Conference representing the leaders of higher education institutions, and three unions.

The forum unanimously supported the six points of the students and recognised the legitimacy of the networks and their important roles in delivering the opinions of everyone affected by the changes to decision-makers.

Spin

The Hungarian prime minister’s short video message of 15 December was difficult to interpret. He announced that there would be no limit on the number of government-funded places, and that everyone who achieved some pre-set number of points on the qualifying exams would be admitted.

Unfortunately, it was already clear back then that this was nothing but a trick by the spin doctors. Soon thereafter, the State Secretariat for Education announced that 16 faculties – including economics, management and law, which attracted half of all applicants in 2012 – would have no government-funded places.

There were contradictory arguments regarding why this was necessary: "These majors are not of strategic importance"; "The graduates of these majors earn a lot’" "There is over-production of these majors".

For other courses, the government intervened when universities set their capacities, and in the end only rough figures for the number of government-funded places were published. For example, the University of Debrecen will accept 15-250 medical students.

The government has changed its stance on a daily or weekly basis. Its ideas were obviously unfounded, ineffective and contradictory, but they sounded impressive enough. The 2013 budget bill made it obvious that the government wanted to push financial responsibility onto universities; it is possible to admit students, but there is no way to finance them.

Smear campaign

At a 7 January students’ meeting, an ultimatum addressed to the government was passed – if immediate demands were not met and negotiations about higher education reform with the inclusion of all affected parties did not commence, on 11 February protests would continue.

Immediate demands included no discrimination for the 16 faculty courses, and compensation for budget cuts.

There was no government response, but pro-government media outlets started a smear campaign. HaHa was accused of being supported by opposition parties and funded by the Hungarian-American businessman George Soros. This fitted right into the government’s divisive, nationalist rhetoric.

One of the newspapers even managed to hack into the internet site that HaHa uses for decision-making. However, besides some activists’ funny comments about the 11 February demonstration and that they participated in a training session hosted by American community organisers, nothing was found that could be used to smear the organisation.

Nevertheless, this was enough to fill the nominally independent (but actually heavily pro-government) public television with news about HaHa’s purpose to serve foreign interests, including those seeking the fall of the government.

On 21 January, HÖOK signed an agreement with the government, which had only two concrete, yet controversial, results. First, the agreement was not supported by HaHa and other organisations. Second, in the agreement the government abandoned its initial idea that it would influence the process of selecting university presidents and promised that it would fund some seats for the 16 courses.

However, the minister had already determined the very limited cut-offs for these majors – it is now unavoidable that far fewer applicants will be accepted compared to 2011, and that universities outside Budapest, which previously had lower cut-offs, will now have no government-funded seats at all.

The higher education application process has already started, but applicants still don’t know how many places will actually be funded by the government, and whether there is even any point in applying for the 16 majors singled out, given the unrealistic cut-offs, even though many people have been preparing to enter one of these courses for many years.

Chaos

Every day another university announces lay-offs, and the closing of certain colleges has already been decided by the government, even though the application process for them is under way.

The government does not want to admit that its reforms have created chaos in higher education, while there is no discussion of the reforms demanded by students.

The government is only willing to negotiate with a few selected organisations, many of them with questionable competence and legitimacy when it comes to the higher education sector, such as the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, an organisation that has been vigorously supportive of government policies.

Meanwhile, some public education employees are ready to go on strike, university employees live in complete uncertainty, universities are unsure whether they will have enough money for the second half of the year, and applicants cannot get even the most basic information.

The situation is not set to improve, as on 8 February the governing party proposed a new amendment to the constitution – the fourth since the document came into effect only two years ago.

Most of the new provisions go against previous decisions of the Constitutional Court, and further restrict the power of the Constitutional Court. Notably, the court would lose the power to examine further amendments to the constitution and to justify its decisions solely on the basis of legal precedent.

This amendment, if passed, would have dramatic consequences for the student movement as well. The student contract that obliges students on state-financed scholarships to stay and work in the country and new regulations that put the universities' financial management under the control of the government – severely threatening their autonomy – would be inscribed in the constitution.

Apart from the fact that there is no reason why these regulations should be part of the constitution, if the amendment is passed, two of the ‘points’ demanded by the students and the National Higher Education Forum would suddenly become unconstitutional.