The University of Debrecen (UD) will host nearly 7,800 international students in the 2025/2026 academic year. According to Jenei Attila, director of the Coordinating Center for International Education, maintaining the university’s popularity in the international student market and increasing its competitiveness requires continuous development of its English-language programs.
For the upcoming academic year, UD has announced more than 100 English-language programs, including preparatory courses, BSc, MSc, and PhD programs. The Coordinating Center for International Education recorded nearly 36,000 applications and conducted over 7,000 admissions procedures.
-
“The admission data align with the plans we outlined in autumn 2024. However, programs that are less attractive domestically are also less competitive internationally. It is therefore important to raise the quality of our programs. Our goal is to offer English-language courses that provide modern, labor-market-relevant knowledge and support students’ rapid and successful employment,” said Jenei Attila.
Jenei highlighted that keeping pace with the international education market also requires the introduction of a quality assurance system alongside program development.
-
“During enrollment, we continuously monitored our target groups while running intensive marketing campaigns. We opened new markets, restructured our recruitment agencies, and continue to establish local offices,” he added.
A significant number of international students will again join DE under the Stipendium Hungaricum scholarship program. Compared to 2024, UD received nearly 31,000 applications this year, representing approximately 35–40% of national applications.
-
“Based on the Tempus Public Foundation Board’s decision, 756 students began their studies at UD with state support. We also observed significant growth in our fee-paying programs, with a 30% increase in applications compared to last year. Altogether, over 2,300 international first-year students began their studies in 2025/26, bringing our international student community to nearly 7,800, a 2% increase from the previous year,” Jenei noted.
To support students, UD launched the UD International Scholarship program in 2024, offering tuition discounts from 30% to 90%.
-
“In addition to global demographic and political challenges, limited affordable housing and dormitory places remain the biggest local obstacle. Around 1,500 more reasonably priced dormitory places are needed to support further growth,” Jenei added.
Medical and health programs continue to be the most popular, with nearly one-third of international students choosing courses at the Faculty of Medicine, Faculty of Dentistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, or Faculty of Health Sciences. Among non-medical programs, the Faculty of Informatics, Faculty of Science and Technology, and Faculty of Engineering received the highest number of applications, with the most popular programs seeing eight- to twelve-fold over-enrollment.
(unideb.hu)
