At the initiative of Minister of Human Capabilities Zoltán Balog, the higher education roundtable held its first meeting on Tuesday since the new Hungarian government was formed following the April elections.

Similarly to previous occasions, the roundtable was attended by representatives of the government, the Hungarian Rectors’ Conference, the Hungarian Chamber of Industry and Commerce, the Higher Education Workers’ Trade Union and the National Conference of Students’ Self-governments.

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The roundtable, led by Minister of State for Higher Education László Palkovics, was tasked with creating a blueprint for the reform of higher education based on previous strategic documents.

The National Conference of Students’ Self-governments undertook the task to prepare a draft regulation concerning the rights and responsibilities of the students and their representations.

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Another goal of this reform is to ensure that rules will be put in place with the aim of protecting students, the minister said, recalling an earlier regrettable incident in a freshmen’s camp.

Minister Balog also asked the Ministry of Justice to consider an amendment to the Penal Code concerning sexual crimes. He said the law should regard it as an aggravating circumstance if such crimes are committed in an educational establishment or an event organized by one such institution.

Mr. Palkovics said the roundtable would set its own agenda for the next four months and determine the individual contributions of the participating organizations to the reform plan, and expressed his hope that the government will be able to discuss a proposed higher education strategy in December.

(Ministry of Human Capacities)