Teaching Sociology in Contemporary Hungary

Over the past 15 years, Hungary has undergone a series of political transformations that have had a profound impact on higher education. The government has begun to strengthen its loyal right-wing conservative academic regime, which helps to propagate its neo-conservative agenda; it has meanwhile restructured and steadily narrowed the scope of higher education and especially of the social sciences, converting most state universities into public interest trusts and tightening the budget of the few remaining state universities. Some university programmes, such as gender studies, have been banned, and recently there have been serious cuts in publicly funded university places, particularly in the humanities and social sciences. As a result, most sociology lecturers are underpaid and feel the pressure of the government’s hostility to critical social sciences. The move towards internationalization may improve the financial situation, but it further narrows the space for addressing the social problems of local society.