Values, attitudes, and goals of future Hungarian food engineers

Over the last few decades Hungarian higher education has been radically transformed, and this transformation was implemented to counter the backwardness that previously plagued the education system. Agricultural education in particular was part of this transformation process, which included the disciplines of food science and related technology. This attempt at transformation yielded only a partial success; student numbers shot up, but there was no subsequent general improvement in the efficiency of higher education. This article is based on two surveys carried out in 1997 and 2007. The students’ values can be characterised as pluralistic and heterogenous. Based on longitudinal research, a shift can be seen toward materialistic and hedonistic values. The motivation for choosing the Faculty of Food Science is varied in nature, mirroring the food industry’s often critical current situation. High schools’ professional orientation is weak. Although the Faculty’s Budapest location is attractive, in the long run this is not sufficient to replace carefully planned promotional work. By structural equation modelling a significant relationship can be proven between the students’ values, their types of knowledge, and their expectations for future types of work.