Governmental Theories – Students’ Responses: Student Strategies Reacting to Changes in Hungarian Higher Education

Rita Csőke,Zsuzsanna Eszter Tóth

doi:10.12776/qip.v21i3.921

Abstract

Purpose: By analysing enrolment data for the past few years, this paper searches for the answer to what extent government interventions influence the choices of students entering to higher education.Methodology/Approach: The paper analyses statistical data of higher education applications and admissions for the 2010-2016 interval.Findings: The analyses presented in this paper strengthen the fact that a significant number of students is ready to undertake financial burdens (i.e. pay tuition fee) in order to achieve their own goals or to disclose government restrictions and obligations, surprisingly even in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics sciences) education. Despite the governmental interventions, economic faculties are still the most popular ones, while the politically favoured STEM faculties have not become more favourable due to the state subsidies.Research Limitation/implication: Quality management activities of higher education institutions should strongly focus on and reflect to potential students and their needs, since it is primarily the students’ choice to enrol to a specific institution’s specific faculty, and if yes, to which.Originality/Value of paper: According to the best of our knowledge this is the first analysis which has incorporated enrolment limit scores in the process of evaluation. Compared to the descriptive analyses available in Hungary, our research results have resulted in a more complex conclusion on the same basis.

Highlights

A key question of quality management in higher education (HE) or in a particular higher education institution (HEI) is the identification of the ‘customer’
Who is the one for whom a HEI provides a service, and whose expectations should primarily be met when it comes to quality issues? Is it the state or the students who ‘buy’ higher education services? Whose expectations would and should predominantly influence quality-related decisions and measures made by HEIs?
Unlike the previously described period, the trough of this wave following the high point of 2011 shows a different curve. The number of those applying for higher education dropped down to the previous low point in only a two years time, and the curve of the following ascent takes a different shape as well

Summary

Introduction

A key question of quality management in higher education (HE) or in a particular higher education institution (HEI) is the identification of the ‘customer’. Whose expectations would and should predominantly influence quality-related decisions and measures made by HEIs?. The state influences the existence and operation of HEIs, both directly and indirectly. In Hungary, an evident mean to intervene into HE is the distribution of state-financed student places for newly entering students among institutions and fields of studies. The state seems to enforce its preferences partly through these measures, namely, in terms of the number of state-funded degrees. Through this process the state validates its own criteria and intends to directly influence the number of students on particular fields of study at the institutions. By doing so, the state directly influences the funding of an institution or a faculty. Students make a decision between faculties and institutions

Methods

Results

Conclusion