INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS IN HUNGARIAN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

2018 | Angol nyelvű kiadványok

The aim of the research was to describe processes and problems in the internationalisation of higher education in Hungary.

Internationalisation is a dynamic process all over the world and it is not easy to grasp the essence and the meaning of it. These processes are often seen only as a trend in student mobility and foreign language courses but this is a simplification. Experts call the attention to the fact that internationalisation has a deeper meaning and should affect higher education in more fundamental aspects. In Europe, the two powerful driving forces affecting the internationalisation of higher education are the social, educational and training policy of the European Union, and the European labour market. The aim of the former is to build a more cohesive European society. The latter is motivated in building a competitive labour market: firms are interested in recruiting from a larger pool of competent labourers. Success in a very competitive international labour market largely depends on strategic planning in education, and the concentration and use of resources adequate to the goals and objectives. At the European level, Erasmus+ is a financial instrument to support international student mobility with social policy goals. In addition, the Hungarian government established the scholarship programme, Stipendium Hungaricum, in 2013. This programme supports economic policy goals and, at the same time, stimulates the use of the institutions to full capacity, which is also meant to give impetus to quality development.

For analytical purposes, we thought it worthwhile to distinguish other dimensions of internationalisation as well, for example the quantitative and qualitative aspects of internationalisation and the external and internal aspects of internationalisation (Derényi, 2014). The quantitative aspect of internationalisation can be described by indicators related to the availability of courses in foreign languages and the number of participants in such courses. The qualitative aspects of internationalisation may be described by indicators of student and staff mobility and the internationalisation of content. As far as the external and internal dimensions are concerned, the former includes international activities such as delivering study programmes in another country, whereas by internal processes of internationalisation we mean developments affecting the learning environment within the institution, for example, the internationalisation of teaching content, sharing international experiences, etc.

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