Female students of Hungarian origin in the higher education system of Serbia: A gender perspective

Abstract

The number of students of Hungarian origin studying at the University of Novi Sad (Vojvodina, Serbia) is considerably lower than expected, based on the size of the Hungarian national community living in Vojvodina. This fact is caused by various reasons, but the most important is that one third of the Hungarian students continue their higher education in Hungary instead of Serbia. The primary cause of this brain drain is that they cannot continue their studies in their mother tongue. Hungary is a member of the European union, and therefore prospective students choose it over Serbia, as a Eu university degree opens up better employment opportunities, especially in the Eu. This paper analyzes the number of female students from the Hungarian national community in Vojvodina, who are studying at the university of Novi Sad, and compares their number to the number of students of Serbian nationality at the same university, as well as the gender aspect of their faculty choices. The aim of this study is to express the lower representation of Hungarian female students at the university of Novi Sad, especially in the areas of technical sciences studies and computing and information sciences, and to propose measures and solutions in order to overcome the above mentioned lower representation. The research results indicate a decrease in the number of female Hungarian students and a seriously biased structure of their faculty choices at the university of Novi Sad, as well as the fact that their faculty choices result in problems which they face later when they start looking for employment. It would be of great importance if the government, as the founder of higher educational institutions, would take action. The civil society's engagement is needed as well in this field, through affirmative and other measures which could increase the number of students in the technical study areas and thereby increase the likeliness of finding suitable employment opportunities after graduation.