Record high admission scores at Corvinus again 

The high admission scores of Corvinus students this year confirm the success of the University’s model change three years ago. The minimum acceptance score for the International Business BSc in English was 478 points, 477 points for the International Relations in Hungarian BA and 474 points for the English programme. Thanks to the internationalisation of Corvinus, starting from the 2022/23 academic year more than half of our undergraduate programmes and 80 per cent of our graduate programmes are available in English or exclusively in English.

Corvinus University of Budapest has admitted a total of 2059 students for the 2022/2023 academic year through the central admission procedure. From September 1530 students will be able to start their bachelor’s, 452 their master and 77 students their single-cycle programmes. In addition, Corvinus has admitted 268 foreign students to undergraduate and 329 to graduate programmes through international admission, with applicants from 75 countries in total. The University’s strategic goal is to increase the proportion of international faculty and students. With this year’s admission process, the University has made significant progress, with more than 20 per cent of the students admitted coming from abroad. 

Almost 70% of the students admitted this year to the full-time undergraduate programmes and 90% of the students admitted to the full-time graduate programmes can study free of charge thanks to the Corvinus Scholarship, provided by the Maecenas Universitatis Corvini Foundation, which maintains the University. Corvinus expects students to prioritize their studies during their university years, for that, the university provides all the support they need. The best students are awarded a scholarship of up to HUF 70,000 per month by the Maecenas Universitatis Corvini Foundation, which is more than double the amount of the state scholarship. 

Corvinus focuses on quality education instead of mass education 

The strategic goal of Corvinus is to become the best university in the Central and Eastern European region in the field of economics and social sciences by 2030. It aims to achieve this goal through elite education and internationalisation. In order to provide quality education, the University is gradually reducing the ratio of students per lecturer, and this year 10% fewer students could enrol than last year with a higher average admission point. 

For most undergraduate programmes the threshold increased further compared to last year; for the most popular and largest Hungarian-language bachelor’s programme, Business and Management, students needed a minimum of 455 points, and for the English-language version of the same programme at least 466 points. 

Compared to last year, the admission threshold for the Finance and Accounting BSc has increased significantly: this year, students needed 460 points, instead of the 448 points last year. Similarly, the number of points required for the Business Informatics bachelor’s programme has also risen significantly, from 429 last year to 446 this year. For the unique Hungarian-language bachelor’s degree in Applied Economics students also needed more points than last year’s 445; this year students qualified for the Corvinus Scholarship from 459 points, while the English-language scholarship threshold was 458 – compared to last year’s 442. The admission threshold was also very high for the Hungarian-language Communication and Media Science: after 447 points last year, 458 points were needed for successful admission in 2022. 

Internationalisation as a strategic goal 

The internationalisation of Corvinus is a strategic goal, and an integral part of this is that the University is offering more and more of its courses in English or exclusively in English. Since last year, Corvinus Scholarship students no longer have to pay a foreign language contribution for English-language courses. In line with its strategic goal, the University is increasing the proportion of its degree programmes available in English every year, with more than half of the undergraduate programmes starting in 2022/23 and eighty per cent of graduate programmes being available in English or only in English. 

This year again, a very high score – 478 points – were needed to qualify for a scholarship place in the International Business BSc, which has been available only in English since last year, making it the record holder for admission thresholds. It was also not easy to get into the University’s popular social sciences programmes, 474 points were needed for the scholarship for the English-language International Relations BA and 442 points for the English-language Communication and Media Science BA. 

Unique range of programmes in Hungary 

As part of its renewal, Corvinus University of Budapest has started to renew its training portfolio over the past three years, following the example of Western Europe. In the coming years, the aim is to create an undergraduate portfolio with fewer courses that provide general knowledge and a graduate programme portfolio with specialist courses. The PPE undergraduate programme (Philosophy, Politics, Economy) launches in the autumn of 2023, for the first time in Hungary. The course will adopt an approach that follows the Anglo-Saxon tradition and one that is quite popular in Europe: it will provide a philosophical foundation and a sophisticated approach to the interrelated issues of economy, society and politics for the future generation. The course gives a deep and solid foundation for those who wish to pursue a career in politics, economics and science as analysts, managers and scientists. 

Although there is a growing demand for data analytics-based expertise, there has been no university education for professional analysis of business data in Hungary. This gap will be filled by Corvinus’ new undergraduate programme in Data Science in Business, which will also start in autumn 2023, aiming to train professionals who are familiar with the methodological, IT and business background required for data analysis and modelling, and who are able to combine and apply these skills to solve problems independently. The training will provide students with the competitive skills to extract relevant information and knowledge from business data and thus create real value for business stakeholders. As an undergraduate programme, the course is also unique in the region.