László Palkovics, Minister of Innovation and Technology, has announced that government funding for higher education will double next year to over HUF 400 billion (EUR 1.1bn) from HUF 210 billion this year.
According to MTI, Minister Palkovics said higher education institutions will have altogether HUF 2,100 billion in development funds, with its use based on the programs outlined by the universities. The minister said that the government’s strategy “aiming to achieve a paradigm shift in higher education”, which the government outlined in 2014, was successful in creating an operating structure independent from the government. He said the number of students applying for places in higher education has grown by an annual 11 percent this year, with 65 percent applying to institutions operated independently from the government.
Minister Palkovics laid the cornerstone of a library and community building at the Budapest Business School, the third largest university in Hungary after Eötvös Loránd University and Debrecen University. The building is being constructed with a HUF 5.3 billion (EUR 14.7m) government grant.