Hungary’s parliament on Thursday approved an amendment to the law on higher education which incorporates the terms of student contracts.
On July 3 the Constitutional Court overruled the contracts for students receiving state grants contained in a government decree, saying the contracts should have been incorporated into a national law.
The decree stated that students with state grants must sign a contract according to which they agree to take up employment in Hungary for double the period of their grant. Repayment is demanded if the student fails to stick to these terms.
On July 4, parliament’s education committee submitted an amendment to the higher education law with the same contract stipulations as contained in the decree.
The amendment approved today with 238 votes in favour, 59 votes against and 31 abstentions, also endorsed a last-minute proposal by the education state secretary to rename student contracts “student scholarship contracts”. The conditions for fee-paying students will be stipulated by a government decree, according to the approved last-minute proposal.
