A long-term partnership to support the development of higher education in Hungary has been agreed with the Hungarian Ministry of Culture and Innovation and global higher education data company Times Higher Education (THE).
The collaboration demonstrates the ministry’s commitment to significantly strengthening, advancing and promoting its higher education sector.
THE will carry out a detailed analysis of Hungary’s higher education system, analysing its current performance, and benchmarking it with successful global education hubs based on THE’s gold standard World University Rankings and review this in light of the ministry's ambitions.
THE will also support universities by providing tailored insights, developing bespoke targets and giving individualised progress reports.
Based on this analysis, Times Higher education will offer strategic guidance to meet the government's objectives, enabling Hungary to position itself as a world leader in higher education and support its universities in their ambitions.
State Secretary for Innovation and Higher Education Balázs Hankó said: “Of all the Hungarian higher education institutions, 11 are already listed in THE's World University Rankings. Just five years ago, only seven of these featured in the listing, although with each year this number is increasing. Eventually, our aim by 2030 is to have at least one university in the world’s top 100 and three among Europe’s top 100.
“Significantly, Hungary is already a prominent higher education hub in Europe, and through our HEIs’ performance in THE rankings we expect to attract even more attention from the world's academic and student communities.”
Phil Baty, Times Higher Education’s chief global affairs officer, said: “Hungary’s ambitions for its higher education and research sectors are impressive and inspiring and Times Higher Education is delighted to have been selected to partner with the ministry to provide our trusted data, global benchmarks and insights to support the sector.
“THE will deploy its unparalleled data insights covering teaching, research, knowledge transfer, financial sustainability, internationalisation, social impact and academic reputation, on thousands of universities from more than 100 countries, to support Hungarian universities.”
Hungary has ambitions to double the enrolment of international students and to create a diverse and high-performing academic environment. In 2023, two Hungarian-born scientists Katalin Karikó and Ferenc Krausz, won Nobel Prizes, one in medicine and the other in physics, making Hungary the 11th largest Nobel laureate per head of population in the world. This also demonstrates that Hungarian higher education has been performing at world class level for centuries. THE will work in partnership with the ministry and the Hungarian higher education sector to support the amplification of the country’s excellence in science and research and to support international connections through THE’s events.
THE’s Europe Universities Summit takes place on Tuesday 23 and Wednesday 24 April in Bremen, Germany and Mr Hankó will be speaking on a panel at the event on the future of higher education and the role of partnerships on 23 April.
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