INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS IN HUNGARIAN HIGHER EDUCATION

Overall, higher education in Hungary is popular with students from abroad, even if there are significant differences in terms of its structure. The ever-faster increase in the annual headcount of the international student body serves as proof to this statement. The expansion of the size of the body of international students is of special importance in higher education since in 2016 the Hungarian government set the objective of having 40,000 international students by 2023 (EMMI, 2016). Numerous studies have been published on this topic, usually focusing on specific issues, including, for example, the countries from which we receive most of the students, the most popular majors, possible economic advantages due to the presence of a great number of international students, and how internationalization takes place in higher education in Hungary. By means of processing data published by the Hungarian Educational Authority [Oktatási Hivatal], this paper aims to present the changes in the number of international students in Hungary over the past ten years. This also includes the discussion of the structure of these changes related to a variety of issues such as relations, types of institutions and their ownership, levels and types of programs, as well as gender proportions. However, even with this effort, the officially available statistics are suitable for presenting a properly detailed assessment of the situation only to a limited extent.

总体而言，尽管匈牙利高等教育体系在结构层面存在显著差异，但该国高等教育仍深受海外学生青睐。国际学生年度在册人数的持续快速增长，便是这一论断的有力佐证。匈牙利高等教育领域国际学生规模的扩张具有特殊战略意义——2016年匈牙利政府曾设定目标，计划至2023年吸纳4万名国际留学生（EMMI, 2016）。目前学界已围绕该主题发表诸多研究，大多聚焦于特定议题，例如：主要生源国、热门主修专业、大量国际留学生带来的潜在经济收益，以及匈牙利高等教育的国际化路径。本文依托匈牙利教育署（Oktatási Hivatal）发布的公开数据，旨在梳理近十年来匈牙利国际留学生人数的变化趋势，同时还将从多个维度剖析该变化的结构特征，包括生源关联、院校类型与办学属性、项目层级与类别，以及性别比例等。但即便如此，当前可获取的官方统计数据仍仅能在有限范围内，对该现状展开较为详实的评估。