Foreigners will expand the program ‘Campus Hungary’ launched last year – announced Deputy Prime Minister Tibor Navracsics at the Pannon University in Veszprém this Friday.

The Minister of Public Administration and Justice said that with the establishment of the programme, the purpose of the Government was to see students and professors getting involved in international scientific life and promote results of their research on international grounds in order to raise the reputation of Hungary.

As he added, the goal now is to expand the Campus Hungary Programme and let even more foreign people come to our country in order to let Hungary become a scientific superpower again.

The Minister reminded that a hundred years ago all this was natural – who finished local studies, went on to study in Europe for a few more years. He explained that the Hungarian scientific community therefore was multi-lingual; many people were researching in German, French or English and that did not disrupt the Hungarian language, but rather enriched its vocabulary.

After World War II all this came to an end, as in the colonial empire of the Soviet Union the Hungarian scientific life tried to establish ties eastwards under force – said Tibor Navracsics. He added that Hungarian scientists only had opportunity to join the global scientific stream again after the transition.

One of the main goals of the Campus Hungary Academic Mobility Program is the operation of an application system facilitating the international experience gaining of Hungarian students, due to which a growing number of Hungarian students in higher education could study abroad with a scholarship, develop language skills and capitalize the knowledge gained abroad on arrival back home. Another main goal of the Campus Hungary Programme is to increase the international competitiveness of Hungarian higher education and the number of foreign students studying in Hungary and deepen and expand the relationship between Hungarian and foreign higher education institutions. The country-wide coordinated Campus Hungary Programme is implemented through the consortium of Balassi Institute and Tempus Foundation and within the frames of Social Renewal Operational Programme of the New Széchenyi Plan, while supported by the European Union. Nearly six thousand students have already taken part in the Campus Hungary Programme, under which one could apply for a scholarship to any country in the world and they have developed their knowledge in eighty-five target countries.

(Ministry of Public Administration and Justice)