Hungarian professor speaks on campus

Alexis Schinder

Staff Writer

aschindler1@murraystate.edu

Photo by Richard Thompson/The News

Nikolett Mihály, a professor at Szent István University in Hungary, traveled to speak with graduate students studying higher education.

Murray State professor Ben Littlepage coordinates the Postsecondary Education Administration Program.

“This is a topic of interest at Murray State,” Littlepage said. “We like to bring lectures to the campus community that get [students] thinking about the world.”

Mihály’s lecture was primarily for the students of Littlepage’s PSE 630: Globalization and Internationalization in Higher Education class. However, the lecture was also open to the public.

Littlepage said the purpose of the PSE 630 course is to learn about higher education systems in other countries around the world and what international partnerships look like in America and overseas. He said Mihály’s lecture should help students gain a better understanding of higher education abroad.

Mihály spoke about what the higher education system in Europe, specifically Hungary, is like. She also addressed what faculty, staff and student life is like, the cost of attending a Hungarian college and described the structure of Hungarian education.

Littlepage’s students are not the only ones learning more about higher education systems around the world.

Mihály will be staying until the beginning of May to observe and learn about the American higher education system.

“She will be observing classrooms, looking at different instructional technologies, interacting with students so she, like us, can understand how higher education functions in a completely different environment,” Littlepage said.

He said understanding how international higher education systems work is important.

“We have a relatively consistent flow of international students coming to study here,” Littlepage said. “Roughly 2 million students that study in the United States are international students. American administrators and higher education need to understand how our cultures are similar as well as different so we can better serve them, or else they will come, not accumulate and go back home. No one wants that.”

Students studying abroad is a topic Mihály also brought up in her lecture.

She noted Hungary is experiencing a population decrease that seems to be linked to the students that study abroad and then want to live abroad, and there is a yearly decrease in full-time students in Hungarian colleges. Mihály said Hungary has a population of 10 million people, but the country loses about 25,000 people a year.

She said the academic lifestyle in Hungary is similar to that of the U.S. in the sense that it is much happier than the business lifestyle.

“We have more time to be with family, hobbies and sports,” Mihály said. “The academic system is more flexible, and I think more enjoyable.”

She closed on a humbling note, telling students to be proud of their higher education system.

“You have more opportunities than Hungarian students,” Mihály said.

Littlepage expressed his appreciation to Murray State for allowing Mihály to speak to the students.

“We are honored that Murray State supports opportunities where we can learn and grow,” Littlepage said.

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