The government is assisting young people with several measures in university admission procedures, in vocational training, in the acquisition of degrees, in language examinations and in the case of student loans, Minister of State of the Ministry for Innovation and Technology Tamás Schanda said at the online press conference of the Operational Group responsible for the containment of the coronavirus epidemic on Wednesday.
Mr Schanda said admission procedures in higher education are ongoing, and in the next few days an administrative function will be made available on the felvi.hu website, with the aid of which applicants will be able to check and modify details as well as to supply missing details. Until 9 July, they will also be able to change the order of their applications to different universities.
According to the Ministry’s recommendation, in vocational training conducted within the school system, the written part of complex examinations should be held after the final examinations, while practical examinations should be organised in May. There will be no oral examinations in this form of training either, the Minister of State added.
The digital changeover is working well both in higher education and vocational training; an abundance of good ideas have emerged, many of which could also be used after the end of the state of danger, Mr Schanda pointed out.
He stressed that protecting health and human lives is the top priority, but restarting the economy within the shortest possible time is also in Hungary’s best interests. Those who are currently studying in higher education and vocational training will play a key role in this. The government is doing everything it can in order to minimise the inconvenience caused by the present situation to these young people.
Several measures have been introduced in the interest of providing support and jobs for students. The measure that those who will have completed their higher education studies by 31 August will receive their degrees in the absence of language certificates will help more than 75,000 young people. In the related data verification process, they are asking those who have just obtained their degrees to cooperate with institutions, Mr Schanda said. Their expertise will be required on the labour market in the rebuilding of the country’s economy, the Minister of State observed.
Those who would like to take language examinations will soon be able to do so also online, he added.
Changes have also been made to student loans; the maximum amount of the interest-free any-purpose Student Loan Plus available from May is HUF 500,000, while for those attending certain adult training programmes, HUF 1.2 million. From 15 August, the monthly available amount of the any-purpose student loan will more than double; as a result, in the next academic year, loans of up to HUF 1.5 million could be requested, Mr Schanda underlined.
From May, students in higher education will be able to apply for Student Loan1 even retroactive to the first semester, meaning that they could have access to as much as HUF 350,000. The language learning student loans taken out so far have been interest-free; at the same time, from May this product will be removed from the system, the Minister of State said.
(Ministry for Innovation and Technology / MTI)