Hungary

GENERAL INFORMATION
Hungary with the official name Magyar is a
republic in the middle of Europe. Its capital is
Budapest and it has approximately 9.976.000
inhabitants. It has a surface of around 93.000 km
and its neighbouring countries are the seven
countries Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania,
Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia. The country has been
part of the European Union since 2004 but has its
own currency which is the Hungarian forint.
Hungary has a wide variety of nature, but mostly
commonly consists of stretching plains. Added to
that is a huge touristic lake called Lake Balaton, which is the second most popular place in
Hungary after Budapest. The official language is Hungarian, which is a language that does not
look like any other language in the world whatsoever. Wanting to study in live in Hungary is
an amazing experience for every person. Budapest has the essential of being a big city, where
city people will quickly feel it at home. Outside of Budapest the country life begins, where
there is a lot to travel and explore. The inhabitants of Hungary, called Magyars are very
hospitable and welcoming which makes staying in Hungary very pleasant.

TRAVELLING TO HUNGARY
When planning on going to Hungary to study and live, you will first have to find a way to get
there. Luckily, because the country is situated in Europe there are varies way of travelling to
Hungary. Firstly, you can travel there by car. The drive is 1.354 kilometres and will take you
around 14 hours if your approximate speed is 105 km/h, in which you will pass both Germany
and Austria. The advantage to this is that you will already have a car, which is very handy in
Hungary especially in the country side. The other option is to go by plain which will only take
around one and a half hour. The prices of the flight vary from 20 to 200 euros, given the
different flight companies and dates. Another option is to travel by train, which will take
around a day of traveling. You will then probably first travel with a Dutch intercity and
continue your journey with a German Bahn. However other options are possible, like for
example a night train. A train ticket costs around 200 euros per person, again depending on
the different trains and dates.

STUDYING IN HUNGARY
The next important thing to figure out is where you want to study in Hungary. Hungary has
great universities for foreign students given its education is of a high quality. Compared to the
other countries in the region of Hungary, they clearly spend more money concerning that
matter. When wanting to be accepted at a university in Hungary you will need a VWO-
diploma. Universities in Hungary offer three levels of degree:
alapkpzs (bachelors), mesterkpzs (masters) and doktori kpzs (doctorate). Bachelors
programs usually take three or four years, masters programs one or two, and doctorate
programs three years. In some subjects, it is also possible to complete a single five or six year
course, which combines the bachelors and masters levels. The official language in Hungary is
Hungarian, which is used at the majority of the universities. There is the option to learn this
language, but there is also the option to attend a study of which the language used is English,
German or French. The most common foreign language spoken on some universities is
English. Two examples are the BKF University of Applied Sciences in Budapest and the
University of General Medicine in Pcs. Both have a course of six years and have the
requirement of a VWO-diploma. Four universities in Hungary appear in the QS World
University Rankings 2013/14: the University of Szeged (ranked 501-550), Etvs Lornd
University (551-600),University of Debrecen (601-650) and Corvinus University of
Budapest (651-700), which all offer courses in English. International students have to pay a
tuition fee which usually varies from 1000 to 3000 euros per academic year. Added to that there
may be also asked for a registration fee which varies from 40 to 700 euros depending on the
course.

LIVING IN HUNGARY
When wanting to stay in Hungary for more
than 90 days to study, live or work you have
to register yourself officially. When
registering you will need prove of you
application to the university and optional
your student card. The most ideal situation is
to have an apartment near your university,
which is very realistic in the big cities like
Budapest and Pcs. Because Hungary is less
developed than the Netherlands, living in
Hungary is rather inexpensive. It is not
extremely cheap, but you will definitely save
money each month compared to living in the Netherlands. The currency in Hungary is not the
euro, but the forint. When converted, 50 euros equals 15.197.56 Hungarian forints. To give you
a general idea of the prices in Hungary: an imported beer costs 400 forints, 1 pair of Nike shoes
costs around 20,000 forints and one kilogram of tomatoes costs around 440 forints. When
looking at apartments the costs are as follows:
Rent per month: Apartment (1 bedroom) in city centre: 69,728.72 Ft, which equals 230
euros.
Rent per month: Apartment (1 bedroom) outside of centre: 49,318.18 Ft, which equals 163
euros.
Price per square meter to buy an apartment in city centre: 382,600.00 Ft, which equals
1,260 euros.
Price per square meter to buy an apartment outside of centre: 247,272.73 Ft, which equals
820 euros.

What can clearly be concluded from these numbers is that it is relatively inexpensive to live in
Hungary. These numbers are an taken average, which means there are also opportunities to
end up in an even more inexpensive situation. The language spoken in Hungary is Hungarian,
so the big part of the media will be in that language. However with the help of a dictionary you
will quickly understand what is being said and learn a lot of new words at the same time. With
television, there is even the opportunity to get the Dutch channels. This will mean you will still
be able to watch your favourite programs, as well as being up to date on the events in the
Netherlands. When you are living in Hungary you will gradually learn the language, which will
mean that it is just a matter of time before you will understand the media throughout the
whole country.

TRANSPORT
Transport is also an important subject to think about when you have decided you want to live
in Hungary. The best use of transport would be the car, especially when not living in the city
centre. With the car you can travel when and to where you want, which is very essential in a
country where towns often are located far from each other. However if you are planning on
mainly staying inside the city, you can chose to use the public transport. The advantage to this
it that you will easily get to any place in the city on one of the three metro lines or the major
tram lines. The bus and the trolley also have a wide variety of destinations. A single tickets
costs 350 HUF and a 7-day travel card costs 4950 HUF. You will then be able to use every form
of public transport, such as the bus and metro.

CONCLUSION
Because Hungary has a wide variety of natural and manmade attractions, combined with
relatively low living costs and a strong focus on internationalization, Hungarys popularity as a
study destination will only grow in the future. It is seriously an amazing experience to study
and live there, added to the fact that everything will be very well organized for you. To give
you an overview of the most important reasons to choose Hungary as country to study in the
following terms are important to remember:
The lower costs of studying and living, especially compared to other countries.
Life facilities in Hungary are very well taken care of, which makes staying there very
pleasantly.
The Hungarian higher education has an interesting considerable history. More than 600
years ago the first university was established in Hungary. Today the number of universities
and college has grown to over ten in only Budapest, many of them offering an English
course.
The Hungarian diplomas are accepted and are of high quality all over the world.
Fees and living costs are lower compared to the rest of Europe.

As you can notice studying in Hungary has many advantages. Also the living is easy, the
housing is cheap, the education is of a high level and it is only a one and half hour flight from
Amsterdam. Added to that is the fact that this country has friendly people and low crime
rates, which creates a pleasant living environment. Its also one of the best countries to explore
given it beautiful nature and wide variety of touristic locations. To sum up, going to Hungary
to study and to live would be a very wise choice that you will definitely not regret.