Record high point limits at Corvinus

Two years after the transformation of Corvinus, the much higher number of first-time applicants and the high admission point limits of applicants confirm the success of the University’s model change. The Corvinus University of Budapest enrolled a total of 2,304 students for the 2021/2022 academic year. From September, 1,592 bachelor’s, 641 master’s and 71 single-cycle students will start their studies. This year, 74% of students enrolled in full-time bachelor’s courses and 85% of students enrolled in full-time master’s courses will be able to study free of charge under the Corvinus Scholarship Programme, provided by the Maecenas Universitatis Corvini Foundation, which supports the University.

Corvinus focuses on quality education instead of mass education

The strategic goal of Corvinus, transferred to a Foundation as a maintainer, is to becoming the best university in the Central and Eastern European region in the field of economic and social sciences by 2030. The University aims to achieve this through elite education and internationalisation. In order to ensure a high level of quality education, Corvinus University has this year admitted far fewer students to its bachelor’s programmes than last year, with higher point limits. This will enable teachers to provide quality education to students with outstanding potential, rather than mass education. And Corvinus expects students to focus on their studies as a priority during their university years. The University provides all the support it can for that: the best students receive a monthly scholarship of up to HUF 70,000 from the Maecenas Univeristatis Corvini Foundation, which is more than double the state scholarship. From this autumn, the most popular and largest bachelor’s programme at Corvinus, Business and Management, has been completely renewed. Following the Western European model, it has been transformed into a modern business bachelor’s degree course with a generalist focus, integrating the former Bachelor’s degrees in Commerce and Marketing, Tourism and Hospitality, Human Resources and Rural Development Agricultural Engineering. A major advantage of the new study programme is that students do not have to decide at the age of 18 on the exact business field they want to specialise in, but can make this decision in the final year of their studies. In the Hungarian-language bachelor’s degree in economics and management, the point limit for free places has been raised by 24 points to 451. Last year, the same course in English required 434 points to enter, but this year it has increased to 466. In total, the University has admitted 718 students to the various forms of the degree. The Bachelor’s Programme of Applied Economics, the only one of its kind in the country, also required 35 points more than last year. The Corvinus Scholarship place in this degree programme required 445 points, while the English language supported study programme required 442 points.

The strategic goal is internationalisation

A very high 472 points were needed this year to gain a scholarship place in the English-only Bachelor’s programme of International Management, which has been available only in English since last year. In total 198 students were admitted to this course. It was not easy to obtain a place at the University’s popular social science courses this year either, with the English-language Bachelor’s Programme of International Studies needing 468 points and the English-language Bachelor’s Programme of Communication and Media Studies 442 points to be accepted for a scholarship place. The internationalisation of Corvinus is a strategic goal, and an important part of this is that the University is increasingly offering more and more of its programmes in English or exclusively in English. From September 2021, Corvinus Scholarship students will no longer have to pay a foreign language contribution for English-language courses, either. In line with the University’s strategic goal, the interest of applicants in foreign language courses has increased significantly this year, with more than twice as many first-time applicants applying for courses in English than last year. Despite a year-long epidemic, 20% of all students admitted in this year’s admissions process came from abroad.

Generalist Bachelor’s degree portfolio, Specialist Master’s programmes

Corvinus again admitted almost as many students to its Master’s programmes this year as last year, 641 in total. In the coming years, the aim is to offer the majority of master’s programmes exclusively in English. And for those master’s programmes where it is justified and feasible, Corvinus will introduce a one-year master’s programme, following the Western European model. As part of its renewal, Corvinus University of Budapest has started to restructure its training portfolio over the last two years along Western European lines. In the coming years, the aim is to create a bachelor’s degree portfolio with fewer programmes than at present, providing generalist knowledge, and a specialist master’s degree portfolio, with the launch of new courses that are unique in the country and renewed to reflect the needs of the labour market.