Sharply reduced demand for higher education in Hungary

The legislative and regulatory changes that made higher eduation fee-based for the dominant majority of students, and prescribed that students who receive state-sponsored higher education must remain and work in Hungary for at least ten years after graduation - have led to a sharply diminished number of applications for admission to higher education institutions.

While the number of applications was 141,000 in 2011, and 110,000 in 2012, according to preliminary data, in 2013 only about 95,000 secondary school graduates applied for being enrolled into a Hungarian higher education institution.