How higher education has changed since 2010 - how many people, where and what are they studying today?

While the number of young people is falling, more and more of them are studying in higher education. Student numbers fell sharply after 2010 but have started to rise again in recent years, with enrolment rates reaching record highs. In the meantime, the choice of specialisations has changed: business courses have declined, IT and health have gained ground, and gender gaps remain significant. Ahead of the announcement of the admission thresholds, GKI has redrawn the map of Hungarian higher education with fresh data.

In a few days' time, on 23 July, the admission thresholds for higher education will be announced, and GKI has examined the long-term trends in higher education.

How many people are studying at university?

Since 2010, the number of students in Hungarian higher education has followed a "U"-shaped trajectory. In 2010, 318,000 students studied at Hungarian universities, then after a gradual decline from the second half of the decade, this number stabilised at around 250,000 until 2022, a drop of more than 20 percent. The last two academic years have seen a reversal of the trend, with 272,000 in 2023 and 293,000 last year, but this is still below the figures of 15 years ago. At the same time, the relevant age group (18-23) has also shrunk by 18%. While 42% of the relevant age group were students in 2010, 48% will be students in 2024 (This means that if we take into account that the 18-23 age group itself has also declined significantly, we can see that proportionally more people are studying in higher education than before)

At the same time, the number of students in higher education has fallen by 18% since 2008.

In the early 2010s, the number of people enrolling in higher education fell (-20%), which can be explained by the extension of tuition fees. Since then, the number of applicants has been essentially stagnant with a slight fluctuation, while the number of admissions has been rising slightly. This is because the success rate has been steadily increasing since the second half of the 2010s: in 2016, 67% were happy to be admitted at the point of admission, up to 77% in 2024.

Proportion of fields of study out of total student enrolment (2010, 2024, %)

$\"Share$

Format: KSH.

What are students learning?

Although economics courses have lost popularity in previous years, they are still by far the most popular field of study (18%). Health and social care has risen from 8% to 13% and is now the second most popular field. The engineering group holds on to its 3rd place. Although the number of applicants to teacher training has risen rapidly following wage increases in previous years, the proportion of applicants in this field (12%) is still down on 2010 (15%). The largest increase was in computer science, up from 3.5% to 9%
.

Differences between genders

Since 2010, the proportion of female students has been stable at around 54%, so they are slightly overrepresented. However, there is a huge variation between fields of study. The highest proportion of women (82%) is in teacher education, followed by health and social care (71%). There are also high proportions in arts, humanities, social sciences and law.

The proportion of women in education is high in arts, humanities, social sciences and law.

Proportion of women out of total students, by field of study (2010, 2024, %)

$\"Share$

source: KSH

Note: the dashed grey line shows the average proportion of women out of the total student population

They are, however, significantly underrepresented in engineering (26%) and IT (15%). On a positive note, the proportion of women in engineering has increased significantly (by 8 percentage points) over the last decade and a half, but there has been no improvement in IT. An important initiative is the "Girls' Day" organised by the Women in Science Association to promote STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) to potential female students.

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image: freepik