Impact Of Globalization On The Higher Education – Challenges And Opportunities

As a consequence of the continuously evolving environmental impacts, most of the previous systems need to be improved. The Hungarian higher education system is no exception to this either; this system is mostly influenced by the local peculiarities, demographic changes and the globalization. The Hungarian education system takes on an express challenge that is caused by the fact according to which the number of schoolable students decreases as a consequence of the decreasing population which is nowadays perceptible in the field of higher education institutions as well. However, the development in economy does not take it account and the demand on the qualified employees is progressively increasing. This contrast results in the fact that the education system shall discover those opportunities which are suitable for managing this anomaly, even if not completely but approximately. Striving for internationalization is increasingly emerging in the domestic education system which can be interpreted as an alternative solution for the difficulty outlined. The continuous growth in the rate of foreign students in the Hungarian education system can help to manage the continuous demand on the employees with appropriate skills. It is therefore important to place emphasis on attracting and keeping the foreign students as well as recognizing their demands and, along this line, serving them as far as possible. Aims of the treatise are to expound the evolution of demographic situation in this context by means of analyzing related Hungarian and international surveys and to outline those possible solutions and approaches which can contribute to the elaboration of a future educational strategy. As a result of the research, it can be concretely determined what countries the largest percentage of students comes to Hungary from, what educational levels the foreign students most commonly learn at as well as the most popular universities and courses for the foreign students. Consequently, the awareness becomes predictable in view of attracting the foreign students by means of which the whole process can be made more effective. The final aim of this article is to summarize the challenges and opportunities of the higher education that need to be faced and managed.