‘What does the European Commission have to do with Hungarian education? In short, nothing. Education matters, both in terms of content and in terms of structure, are the responsibility of the Member States.’

Russia has introduced new compulsory ’patriotic rituals’ that all school children are required to perform in schools. The new patriotic lessons include discussions of the ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine and the ‘NATO threat’.

Whether state-financed or partially state-financed, the ultimate question regarding higher education is whether it produces highly qualified individuals with a set of skills and knowledge that are useful and profitable for them and for their communities, or not.

Given the PISA results, there is some indication that in Hungary the performance of students in schools is more profoundly determined by their family background than in other OECD countries.

Hungarian universities are increasingly successful in attracting more and more international students. The number of international students studying in Hungarian higher education has been increasing steadily over the last couple of years.