Conventionally, there are quite many people who fantasize “living in any European city or town, no matter how that really feels” for Europe has tons of heritages, being cultural, historical, and academical. Who knows? Probably it might have been the same attraction that led Genghis Khan to wander and march toward the Old European regions in 12th century. Even though a lot of generations from different areas in the universe have “traveled” through many popular destinations, still, not many people can afford a chance “to live a life” in Europe mostly due to lack of information: “how and where?”
Paris, Berlin, Zurich, Stockholm, and London (*oh, this one may leave soon from Europe.) These are the highly recognizable destinations within European territory, but most of them have their own reputation also because of pricey tags, which we need to pay for their spectacular scenery and cultural assets. Naturally, this is the first impression and obstacle that people have to look beyond when it comes to dreaming of, not to mention planning(!) to, live in those cities and towns of Europe. Depending on the regions within Europe, there can still be a quite huge difference in affordability of European life, even if you are not a millionaire, “yet.”
“Central (still not Eastern, based on their claims)” European countries have become more renowned of their educational heritages than historical and cultural ones, due to their English language uses as instruction language for different studies, especially for higher education. Amongst very diverse fields of studies, Hungarian universities have decent quality of education in Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Architecture, Visual Arts, and Music, with relatively cheaper living costs and tuition fees (this can be as low as 1/4~1/8, compared to private institutions in the U.S.) Believe it or not, but thanks to its glorious era of “the Habsburg empire” in the early 19th century, or even earlier than those years, the universities in Hungary were able to even more develop their academic achievements until nowadays, and this is the reason there are surprisingly high number of students from the other parts of Europe, such as Sweden, Norway, Germany, France, and the U.K., in order to study medicine and others.
No matter how “reasonable” the living costs and tuition fees can be, it is still impossible to consider “study and live” in any country without academically proved and renowned by other people. Yes, this is a natural and just way of making up one’s mind. In other words, if the students (and their families) were not convinced by the quality and effectiveness of those Hungarian universities themselves, it is not simple enough to explain why Hungary is quite highly populated by those “international” students, apart from millions of travellers you will encounter on the streets in Budapest. Of course, you are practically not allowed to compare their quality of education based on “cutting-edge” facilities and laboratory equipment in classroom environment with the one in North American universities and institutions. Rather, you may fall in love with those time-worn traces around the walls in the library and on the decades-old door knobs in the lecture halls. To exaggerate a bit more, it is like you must not compare an economic guest house with a club room at Hilton®, not to mention a Presidential Suite – “pay more, get more.”
Still, Hungarian education system has given birth to altogether “thirteen Nobel prize winners,” even during the time of Cold War with its communist authorities. Unlucky with its economic downfalls, Hungarian government has never lost its highest interest in maintaining the quality and value of education – mostly higher one, which in turn allows to welcome a lot of international students with academic and artistic potential as well. Everything is possible in Hungary, with much less cost, unless you give up the idea of “living and studying in Europe” in your course of study, merely due to the lack of extremely up-to-date “hot stuffs” near you. Probably you will feel you miss something trendy and well-trimmed service on a daily basis. However, this should not hinder you from studying something more valuable and meaningful for a long time of trials and errors.
Most likely, here you have the answer now.
“How? Study abroad! Where? Hungary!”
– Krisztina D.
(*Imagine Your Own Library – Joi Lukasik ©BsnSCB.com 2015 – 2016)
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