For a Price: The New York Times on Student Subsidies in Hungary

2013. február 18. 15:04

The New York Times published an article yesterday entitled, 'Students Receive Subsidized Studies in Hungary — for a Price.' University education in Hungary is a curious topic for this prominent daily newspaper, but the reporter, Peter Teffer, generally treated it even-handedly and quotes a variety of sources.

2013. február 18. 15:04
Ferenc Kumin

"Here’s the focus: according to new rules, a student accepting Hungarian state-funded support to pay for university study must sign an agreement to work in Hungary for a certain period of time within 20 years after graduation. In the article, the NYT talks to (some) student leaders, professors, Minister Balog and me, and it points out that this requirement is unusual and raises the question about whether it violates EU principles of freedom of movement. It’s presented as a controversy. (...)

 

One of the students complains that if he has a job offer abroad after graduation, then he can’t take it. But that’s false. A student has twenty years to fulfill the requirement to work in Hungary or pay back the tuition.

One of the sources quoted in the article accuses the government of being 'really populist' with this new rule, an attempt to win voter support. But put yourself in the shoes of the Hungarian tax payer. The Hungarian state pays full tuition for a young man or woman to obtain a three-year, undergraduate degree, or perhaps even longer in the case of a medical or engineering degree, only to have the new graduate leave the country after graduation to apply his or her knowledge, and pay taxes, elsewhere. Would that strike you as fair? (...)

As Minister Balog states in the article, the government wants 'to have a balance between the individual interest and the national interest. This country is investing in higher education, so whoever graduates should also use their knowledge to further the interest of the country.'

So where’s the controversy?"

 

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Összesen 3 komment

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Sorrend:
Charlie Chan
2013. március 11. 18:27
Mr. Teffer is unaware that the two-for-one rule in higher education is in place in many US states, as we speak. Alternatively, what is democratic in the US is undemocratic in Hungary. The NYT is going down the drain as surprising speed.
Odoaker
2013. március 11. 18:27
I'm already fed up with these new born, politically encouraged and fuelled "students" movements. They are over the laws, may occupy the bridges, block the lectures at the universities, break the rules of conduct of the instiutions, arbitrarily stop the traffic, etc. Excercising the political rights is fine, but these are far beyond it. ... and if someone working more than 14 years abroad out of 20 after graduation and is still not able to repay some few million crappy forints, should rahter raise the question whether it was a good idea to sit for years on the university bench and withdraw the place from someone else.
Akvínói akvavit
2013. március 01. 17:37
Oh, how touching of this newspaper to treat its readers a one mile long article on this issue with regard to Hungary. I wonder if it did the same with a similar topic to emerge in Slovakia, Romania, or whatever country that does not have a sizable Jewish population. Go down the drain, Treffer, and suck the dicks in row of Thomas Friedman, Roger Cohen (a "liberal zionist", as he confesses in today's IHT, Bilefsky, and each of your colleagues at the paper, selected only on the basis of race.
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