Govt unveils higher education plan

Hungary's government on Thursday unveiled a broad-reaching plan that aims to make higher education accessible to more students while creating disincentives for dropping out.
The main points of the plan, approved by the government at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, were outlined by government spokesman András Giró-Szósz and deputy state secretary for higher education Zoltán Maruzsa at a press conference.
Giró-Szász said the plan aims to level the playing field and allow more Hungarians to enter college or university. The merit-based system will allow as many people as possible to enter university, not just the ones with money, he said. State-sponsored student loans, under the aegis of the Diákhitel 2.0 programme, will serve as a disincentive for leaving university before graduating, he said, adding that the dropout rate is almost 50% at present.
Giró-Szász announced measures designed to encourage students to take out the loans through helping loan repayment. State organisations will take over the student loans from their employees, he said, and private sector employers who take over the loans will be offered "significant tax write-offs". He noted that repayments for graduates start at just 4% of earnings. Giró-Szász did not reveal the exact number of state scholarships to be available next year at the press conference but confirmed that they were the same as numbers in a proposal reported in the press. Read more...