Governmental Theories – Students’ Responses: Student Strategies Reacting to Changes in Hungarian Higher Education

Purpose: By analysing enrolment data for the past few years, this paper searches for the answer to what extent government interventions influence the choices of students entering to higher education.Methodology/Approach: The paper analyses statistical data of higher education applications and admissions for the 2010-2016 interval.Findings: The analyses presented in this paper strengthen the fact that a significant number of students is ready to undertake financial burdens (i.e. pay tuition fee) in order to achieve their own goals or to disclose government restrictions and obligations, surprisingly even in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics sciences) education. Despite the governmental interventions, economic faculties are still the most popular ones, while the politically favoured STEM faculties have not become more favourable due to the state subsidies.Research Limitation/implication: Quality management activities of higher education institutions should strongly focus on and reflect to potential students and their needs, since it is primarily the students’ choice to enrol to a specific institution’s specific faculty, and if yes, to which.Originality/Value of paper: According to the best of our knowledge this is the first analysis which has incorporated enrolment limit scores in the process of evaluation. Compared to the descriptive analyses available in Hungary, our research results have resulted in a more complex conclusion on the same basis.