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Want to study abroad? Choose from the best Hungarian universities
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Have you ever dreamt of leaving your country for a semester, for a year, or even for the length of an entire university career? If your answer is yes, let me tell you why you need to choose Hungary and provide you with a little help when choosing the best institution that fits you.
Let me start with a quick pros and cons list. Cons: none. Pros: a ton.
Hungary is a beautiful little country in the middle of Europe that has everything.
Modest-sized mountains reaching to the sky in winter, nice beaches around the largest Central European lake, the coolest music festivals all through spring and summer, cosy yet vibrant cities specialised in giving the best university experience. Moreover, it is a rather cheap option wherever you decide to study in the country for a high-ranking university diploma. No matter if it is for a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree or a PhD. To top it off, a standard university course (not medical or law school, of course) lasts 3 years in Hungary, as opposed to the 4 years of many European universities.
If this did not convince you, the Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings definitely will.
9 Hungarian universities are featured on the list of the UK-based university ranking magazine.
These institutions, of course, are considered the best, most popular, and most famous in the country – no wonder they made it to this prestigious list.
For many years, the Semmelweis University of Medicine in Budapest (SOTE, as we call it in Hungary) is leading this mini-list. The university was last ranked between the 400-500th position in the world. Apart from offering an extremely prestigious degree whichever course you choose,
32% of all students come from other countries,
so a multicultural environment is already a given. Moreover, the university is also a list-leader when it comes to another factor, the ratio of female and male students. A little over two-thirds of all students are women.
If you want a school dominated by women but you are not keen on learning all the details of human anatomy because you are more into social issues, Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) is your destination. Just as in the case of SOTE,
almost twice as many female students attend lectures than their male colleagues,
and I do not refer to the fact that men tend to skip more classes. ELTE is a bit behind SOTE on the international list, and “only” 10% of all full-time students are foreigners. However, you can quite literally study anything in English from an undergrad to a PhD level. Apart from living in Budapest, you can also be a part of amazing scandals like when
a participant appeared without pants at the scientific conference of the university.
Of course it should also be mentioned that if a student has brown or black skin or is LGBT they will not be made to feel welcome in Hungary as a rule, unfortunately.