Movement of Special Colleges for Advanced Studies and its Current Challenges in Hungary

Abstract

The history of special colleges’ movement traces back to the last decade of the 19th century in Hungary. Furthermore, its European origin can be found in colleges of medieval universities. Although this collective support of talented students has British and French origins as well, the institutionalisation of this movement can be seen as special Central-Eastern European and Hungarian development. The Baron Eötvös József Collegium founded in 1895 was the first representative institution of this movement. From the middle of the 20th century, several other institutions were established that followed different patterns in supporting university students during their studies. However, the expansion of this movement occurred after the political transformation of 1989–1990 in Central-Eastern Europe. That was a parallel process with capacity growth of higher education, which was forced by changing social perception of higher education and transformation of the higher education policy.