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Foreign students of the medical faculties in Pécs and Debrecen: the choice of the university and acculturation process
22-43Views:80With the headway of globalization and knowledge-based economy, international student mobility is promoted as the main indicator of the internationalization of higher education. In Hungary the number of foreign students – similarly to global trends – shows an increase, representing a significant economic interest. Besides this, the international students make a growing impact
on the development and the economic and cultural life of the cities where the universities are based. In our empirical research, we analyzed international students at the Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmacy foreign language programs of the University of Debrecen and the University of Pécs with the help of personally requested anonymous, self-completed questionnaires (n=602). The
self-developed questionnaire focused on three issues: the motivation of the students, their satisfaction with the university and the process of their integration. The research was conducted in the spring semester of the academic year 2015/2016 at both universities.
Based on the results it can be stated that from the perspective of medium- and long-term policy development of the university and the city, it is indispensable to survey the motivations and satisfaction of the students arriving to Hungary due to international student mobility as well as to facilitate their integration. The general medicine major of the University of Pécs and
that of the University of Debrecen are very popular among foreign students but there are significant differences in their choices behind which we can discover the different cultural background of the matriculated students and this factor determines their personal choices and their later plans. Concerning the difficulties at the beginning we can state based on the results that for the
students of the German programme the different language medium and the local bureaucracy mean a bigger challenge, while for the heterogeneous community of the English programme contact building with the tutors and the integration into the socio-cultural medium mean more difficulties. Concerning the integration we can state that from the point of country of origin the integration means a little less challenge for the more homogenies student community of the German programme than for the heterogeneous community of the English programme behind which most probably the stabilization of the acculturation process can be trailed. -
Family plans and career plans among higher education students in the field of social sciences based on a pilot study in Eastern Hungary
71-93Views:93Our paper explores the family and career plans of social sciences students at Hungary’s second largest university based on a questionnaire-based pilot study. Nowadays, careers include more than the traditional vertical promotion within an organisation, as seen from the emergence of the self-directed “protean” career type, which prompts organisations to adapt to individuals’ values, attitudes, and own career definitions. In addition, the Kaleidoscope Career Model sets out that individuals adapt their career goals to their life stages. Thus, students’ career and family plans matter to prospective employers. Our results show that a modern self-directed career type has emerged among students, for whom it is a priority to meet their own expectations. In several cases, starting a family is preceded by career goals. Furthermore, despite the “feminine” nature of social sciences, our pilot study shows that male students in the field still tend to conform to traditional gender roles regarding the importance of family and career. Our research implies that prospective employers need to adapt their HR strategies to young people’s family and career plans. Moreover, organisations should support students in gaining relevant work experience and in achieving their subsequent career plans.
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Preferred leadership style, leadership and entrepreneurial inclination among university students
3-26Views:66Although many researches have been conducted on leadership styles and university students
are participants in exploratory social science research quite frequently, fewer examples can be
found on the application of the Full Range Leadership model among the youth. In this article,
the authors examine preferred leadership styles among Hungarian students, and map their
connections with managerial and entrepreneurial inclination. The online questionnaire used inthe research was completed by university students studying economics, technology and social
studies in the capital and beyond. The questionnaire was completed by 335 university students.
The results are exploratory, and they seem to modify the existing typologies. Four distinct
leadership styles could be observed within the target group, embodying the transformative,
supportive, defensive, and laissez-faire leadership types. Based on multivariate analysis one may
suppose that among students leadership willingness is positively connected to transformative
leadership, while entrepreneurial inclination to the transformative and supportive styles. -
How has university students’ drug use changed during Covid-19?
161-177Views:181The Covid-19 outbreak and the lockdown have had significant psychological and social impacts
on everyone’s life. Changing life circumstances and daily routines, job losses, uncertainty, have
put a psychological strain on us. As a consequence, we may experience risk behaviours more
often than before. The aim of the study is to analyse how risk behaviours have changed due to
Covid-19 among university students in Hungary, and to identify the psycho-social factors along which the shift can be explained. The analysis is based on the data of ‘Covid-19 International
Student Well-Being Study’ – a study initiated and coordinated by the University of Antwerpen
involving 75 universities from 26 countries. Four Hungarian universities – Corvinus University
of Budapest, the University of Debrecen, the University of Miskolc, and the University of Szeged
participated in the study. The survey was conducted among all university students who filled
in an online questtioannaire in Spring 2020. Our results show that all risk behavoiurs have
declined during the Covid-19 period. However, students who had had consumed drug before
Covid-19 have been using them more frequently during the pandemic. Our results suggest that
the recreational use have probably declined and the problematic use have probably increased
among university students during the pandemic. Our results highlight the fact that students for
whom the crisis situation imposed by the quarantine was hard to handle are more likely to use
substances more frequently, so offering them prevention and treatment options is crucial. -
The civil activity of higher education students and the correlation of their chances of dropping out
141-156Views:73Our research question is that volunteering and civil organization membership of higher education students are able to protect against dropping out from higher education or even divert from effective learning and hinder persistence. The positive or negative effect of civil activity of students is measured by quantitative multivariable method, and the question is whether there is there a clear effect of civil activity on persistence, after allowing the effect of other socio-demographic variables. The results show, that civil activity of students neither protect against dropping out nor hinder persistence in our sample. There were several variables which affected civil activity, and the good relationship with parents is protecting the most against dropping out from higher education, but the fact, that civil activity is neither divert from effective learning, and nor hinder persistence means that it is important to improve civil activity of higher education students due to its’ several positive effects.
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Studying further in higher education as a human capital investment
134-144Views:105In our paper, we examine the motives of further studies in higher education among higher education students, as well as how socio-demographic variables modify these motives. Our research method is quantitative. We used a research database gathered in the historical Partium region in 2014 (N = 1792). The theoretical backgrounds of our research are the human capital theory and Bourdieu’s capital conversion model. Based on ten motives of further studies, we made a cluster analysis and examined the relationships of these clusters and the socio-demographic background variables. Our finding is that the most important motive of further studies among students was expanding knowledge. Therefore, the motive of getting higher wages in the future, which is the central aspect in the human capital model, proved to be of minor importance. Based on the capital conversion theory students wanted to gain cultural and social capital when they decided to study further, as both can be profitable for them in the future. However, while the motives of further studies were affected by the social background of students, contrary to our hypothesis, financial motives were not more important for those students coming from disadvantage backgrounds than for other students
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The Career-building effect of volunteering in higher education
146-160Views:89Nowadays the motives for volunteering are changing among higher education students, and
besides traditional altruistic motives, career-building motives also appear (the acquisition
of work experience and professional knowledge, professional development, networking,
the presentation of voluntary work in the resume). In this paper, we use data from a survey
conducted in five Central and Eastern European countries (N=2,199) to examine through linear
regression analysis the factors affecting the strength of career-building motives and to analyse
through a logistic regression model the determinants of whether or not volunteering is related to the field of study. Our hypotheses are formulated based on the literature. Our results show
that career-building motives are more pronounced among women and students who have a
close relationship with external friends outside the university, study outside Hungary, and study
something other than engineering, computer science or science. Voluntary work is more likely to
be related to the field of study among teacher education students, students with an unfavourable
financial situation, those who study in Romania, and those who have a close relationship with
faculty. -
Career planning and competences assessment among university students
34-45Views:71Planning a career cannot be started soon enough. The determination of following a
career path preceded by significant decisions and aims. Several pieces of research are
dedicated to the affiliation of young adults self-awareness and career paths in terms of
seeking work. University students rarely have the appropriate amount of self-knowledge.
Nowadays in the labour market beside the qualification, competencies are growing in importance. It is crucial to have certain communication, integration and strategic
skills to successfully find a quality job. The University of Debrecen provides a wide
variety of available services regarding individual job search support or consultation
and the commitment of a career path. The surveyed university students valued the
importance of these services and competencies related to improving the finding of a
job after graduation. The conformity between the knowledge of the available services
and the required and existing skills could be helpful in the labour market after getting
the university degree. The questionnaire was filled out by students from the University
of Debrecen and valued by the IBM SPSS Statistics programme. -
Environmentalism of university students in relation to their materialism, life satisfaction, views on politics and pandemic
70-97Views:104Recently, an increasing focus has been made on studying environmental problems and the
related social phenomena. Understanding the environmentalism and its influencing factors
in the case of higher education students can greatly help the preparation and identification
of sustainability policies and educational practices in higher education institutions. In this study, we investigated environmental attitudes and pro-environmental behavior of
students at 17 Hungarian universities as a function of a number of hypothesized influencing
factors. These included materialistic values, life satisfaction, political views, and views on the
Covid-19 pandemic. According to our results, these were all related to environmentalism. More
environmentally conscious students were less materialistic, less right-wing in their political
views, more satisfied with their lives, and also differed in their views on pandemic issues. Beside
a weaker impact of environmentalism and political views, life satisfaction was largely influenced
by the relative financial situation perceived by respondents. -
The Tertiary education plans of disadvantaged secondary grammar school students in Hungary
42-64Views:46My study focuses on tertiary education chances and opportunities of disadvantaged and multiply disadvantaged children and youngsters. The target group of the research consisted of disadvantaged full-time secondary grammar school students who aim to get out of their position and status with the help of further education. Via the interviews I tried to examine the difficult topic of further education from the perspective of the disadvantaged and the multiply disadvantaged students, also aspiring to reveal their notions and fears about the topic. The main goal of my research was to get an insight into the perspective and mentality of disadvantaged and multiply disadvantaged students.
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Work value preferences of university students
93-104Views:49This study is part of a university programme that has been running for several years. At the University of Debrecen, in the academic year 2000/2001, the then Rector's administration initiated a new talent management programme, which was integrated into the existing forms - TDK, vocational colleges, demonstrator network. The novel features of this programme were the multi-stage assessment of the admission procedure and the different forms of support, in particular the tutoring system (Balogh - Fónai, 2003). Admission to the programme is in three stages, the first of which is a process in which faculties delegate the top fifth of full-time second-year students on the basis of their academic performance.
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Structure and communitas: Subcultural problemsolving knowledge in an alternative high school
153-174.Views:42The paper describes the relationship between subcultural and school/institutional interpretations
in the inner discourse of an alternative school (the ’Diákház’) in Budapest. Interpretations and
practices, that belonging two different interpretive frameworks, appear simultaneously and
intertwined in the Diákház communication scene. This contributes to problem-solving
capacities/knowledge that individually do not appear in either of the two. In this discourse, the
subcultural manifestations of difference, deviance, marginality, resistance or communitas, and
the manifestations of knowledge, autonomy, responsibility and the hierarchical structure of the
school sometimes appear in opposition, sometimes in reinforcement to each other. The knowledge
formed in the discourse can be used by the Diákház to keep (formerly drop-out) students within
the institution, and by the students to reduce their own feeling of invalidity. In this way, the
Diákház is able to use the two opposite social states, communitas and structure, to its own
benefit -
The place and role of field studies in teaching medical sociology
44-55Views:70Introduction: The goals of the subject of Medical sociology are to familiarize and explain the relationships between social environment and health. The theoretical and practical elements of the medical sociology education and the field studies that form a part of practical work serve these goals. During filed studies, we build on the previous knowledge and experience of the
students. Method: The themes of the field studies change from semester to semester. From the series of studies we picked three themes that were connected to and built on each other. We present the role of field studies through their description and the explanation of our experiences. Results: Field studies add empirical skills and experience to the knowledge acquired during the
theoretical and practical training of medical sociology. The field study assignments also serve to strengthen the effects of the “hidden curriculum”, the process of the indirect professional socialization at the medical school. Furthermore, the new knowledge and skills give the students a better understanding of the scientific literature helping them in the interpretation of statistical
and methodological aspects of biomedical results and concepts. Conclusion: Our experiences show that field studies are an efficient teaching method. Its most important outcome is sensitizing medical students towards health related social problems and helping them to understand and handle such problems. -
From an acquaintance to a true friend – the idea of friendship among university students
139-159Views:50The idea of writing my essay comes from the book ‘Embert barátjáról – A barátság szociológiája’
written by Fruzsina Albert and Beáta Dávid. I am especially interested in the appearance and
significance of the typical social capital, i.e. friendship, among the students of the Sapientia
University of Miercurea Ciuc (Csíkszereda) and that of the ELTE (Budapest). In order to
investigate the phenomenon of friendship, I chose a qualitative strategy, namely focus group
research.
Although I have expected greater contrasts by comparing the students of these two distinct
locations, I have found that friendship among the interviewed young people constitutes universal value with more common than different patterns. -
The choice of medical career – What do our field work experiences represent?
5-21Views:92Background: One of the greatest challenges of the XXI. century is the changing of the medical profession. Beside of the process of deprofessionalism, the demographic and social composition of the medical society have also been altering. More women became medical doctors in recent years. Parallel to these changes, the career motivations of medical students are transforming. Method: 175 first year medical students from the Semmelweis University participated in our study. They wrote about their career motivations based on a fixed set of viewpoints. The narratives were analysed by both quantitative and qualitative (content analysis) methods. Results: The female students are committed to medical profession at younger ages. The most important factors in career choices are altruism and scientific interest for both genders. There is a male dominance in career motivations of experiences, knowledge and benefits. Conclusions: The changing face of career motivations has a significant impact on both the physicians and the patients. This issue opens up possibilities for following research.
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The interpretation of prejudice among students in Debrecen
232-243Views:58Negative discrimination has always existed, we have always had an opinion about the other individual, despite the fact that it was often without any background knowledge. It was in the first half of the twentieth century that the scientific, social psychological study of prejudice began in the United States, dominated by the antagonism between whites and blacks. It was at this time that human society came to realise that the problem was a global one, and that it was essential to examine it, starting, among other things, from the massacres of the Second World War, which were partly the result of prejudice. Unfortunately, however, we do not need to go back to the great events of history to realise that prejudice has serious consequences. In our everyday lives, we are also confronted with a plethora of cases of crime, discrimination and conflict based on an image of the other person that is based on incomplete information.
Although the image of a world free of prejudice may be a utopia, these types of feelings and attitudes can and must be dealt with, but above all it is very important to map the situation and to examine it scientifically. -
The role of the hidden curriculum in the development of horizontal gender segregation, as a result of an interview research with teachers
72-97Views:71The impact and influencing power of educators and teaching aids used in education systems is an internationally researched area as they play a key role in the development and study of students’ personality. According to the literature, the teacher is one of the most significant „tools” of the hidden curriculum behind the official curriculum, but the presentation of the phenomenon in teaching aids strengthens gender stereotypes and reduces the possibility of gender equality. In this study, we examine the role of a hidden curriculum in the development of gender horizontal segregation, with particular reference to the influence of teachers and textbooks. In the empirical part of the study, we did conduct a semi -structured interview with 18 elementary school teachers through a non-probability expert sampling, which was analyzed by categorization and interpretation. Our results show that traditional gender roles have prevailed in the family of educators. During their studies, they observed a difference depending on their educators in terms of behavior and expectations – but they believe that they themselves do not differentiate between students. According to their views, the personality of the teachers is of particular importance regarding the personality development and academic progress of the students, however, the career orientation of the children is mainly determined by the parents family patterns that appear in the family.
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Factors that influence matechoice among college women
136-158Views:71The centre of the study is the influential factors of female students in higher education. As a
research question, does the institution of marriage continue to be a prominent place among
female students in higher education as a planned relationship? And, does a person with
a higher education level of education develop a relationship with a higher educated person,
therefore achieving homogeneity of relationship? Thereby the choice of coupling is presented in
addition to the examination of marriage, cohabitation and postponement mechanism, beyond
the factors influencing partner selection, which are analyzed in a qualitative research of tenpersons. Factors include age, place of residence, origin and religion, separation from parenting,
educational attainment, material capital and labor market situation, planned duration of the
relationship and effects of the information age. -
The Patterns of free time in secondary schools
64-78Views:161The aim of this study is analyse the free time allocation in different types of secondary schools in Hungary. The use of free time is connected with social inequalities and the agglomeration of cultural capital so these patterns are rooted most of all in the social background. Besides, educational sociology involves an institutional effect in this field as well. Hungary has got a selective educational system and the different types of secondary schools refermainly to specific social groups so the differences in the use of free time can be significant. The database of HungarianYouth Research has been used during this analysis. This database is representative for regions, types of settlement, age and gender (N = 8000) and the subsample of secondary school students can be separated. Quantity of free time, places of free time, features of „screen time activites” and cultural activities have been analysed. Means, chi-sqare statistic, ANOVA-test, factor analysis and linear regression model were used. Our empirical finding scan show the different free time patterns of the subsamples (grammar school, secondary vocational school and vocational school).
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College and university students’ attitudes towards democracy in Hungary
47-69Views:48The existence of education for democracy has positive impact on citizens’ political knowledge
and the identification with the democratic values. In the process of civic education, the
universities and high schools play an important role. Many scholars argue that the high schools
have a civic mission to serve a public good or the university is the civic mission itself. To examine
democratic citizenship among high school and university students we use a dataset composed of
three surveys (2011/2012, 2013, 2015) of 4800 Hungarian students. We build on the literature
about the empirical and theoretical framework of democratic citizenship to answer the question
if 25 years after the collapse of communism we can witness the emergence of a new generation
of democrats in Hungary? Have young people successfully come to terms with their countries' authoritarian past and developed a commitment to democracy as a system of rule? Are they
ready to defend it in the face of challenges? Based on the empirical framework of citizenship we
derive a number of significant lessons from the Hungarian case, with important implications
about the ability to teach the norms and responsibilities of democratic citizenship in the world’s
emerging democracies. -
Political Socialization in the Adolescence
27-42Views:71In the research „School and Society, 2005” we had got an astonishing picture of the political socialization. Nearly four fifths of the high school students support antidemocratic principles: control and one-party political system. In 2008 we repeated the research and we had got similar results. Next time I did this research in 2017 and in this paper I summerize the results of the 2008 and 2017 research. I focus on the similar and different results.
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Where is the truth? – Greek catholic high school youth’s justice values
105-123Views:50The purpose of our study is to present what young people think about justice, and how they
are different from the youth and society of the country. The functioning of a society requires
that fair conditions prevail in it. However, there are several types of justice. What young people,
as adults of the future, think about this value is essential for the functioning of a society. We
present philosophical interpretations and value sociological research on justice, then we define
the concept of justice for Hungarian society and Hungarian youth. In our research we asked all
eleventh and twelfth students of a Greek Catholic high school in Eastern Hungary in 2014 and
2019. Quantitative method was used to compare students’ views on justice with the other young
people in the country. According to our results during the five years of research, equality was
more important for young people, especially for the boys. The importance of the value of equality
was clearly related to the religiosity of the asked young people. -
Alternatives of how to prepare for the future labor market
146-160Views:62What happens if among the members of a society and among the smaller and larger units and groups making up the society trust and confidence seems to be disappearing at once? What happens if confidence reposed into each other fall victim to social differences as well as to the economic / cost-of-living boxing of modern information society? How to stop the crisis symptom that seems to be developing this way and which is shown in the fragmentation of communities?1 With other words, is it possible to “stick again together” a community or even a whole society started to disintegrate? The questions, even if not so characteristically phrased, provide sociologists actually with the scope of understanding our modern, individualistic world (Habermas 1994). Gusfield (1975) depicts dichotomy of community and society in a way that we should interpret community as a pervading, significant contrast. By now literature seems as if it was only be able to picture the changes taking place in the images both of the society and community describing them by even more pronounced, contradictory processes. The changes that send messages on the disintegration of categories and frames becoming insecure instead of the security and integration quasi missed by Habermas. It also seems as if—quasi as an answer given to this process—occlusion/seclusion both on the part of community members and the various communities from the seemingly unknown and insecure changes were more intensive (Légmán 2012). We intend to construe these phenomena on the next pages, but due to extension limits without the need for completeness of social interpretations. We want to do it with the help of mainly one dimension: value preference through the example of a given society, namely the Hungarian one. Thus we get to the stability and the solidarity of the members of the smallest unit of society, one which accepts and expresses various value preferences, the family.
From time immemorial, one of the crucial questions of mankind has been what the future has in store for us. The future, however, has remained unfathomable up to this day, and even future studies promises only as much as prognosticating what is likely to continue and what will plausibly change in the world. Thus, no wonder, that already the first “real” economists of the 18th century (Adam Smith et al.) considered the creation of the future model of labor economy as a challenge. At the present era of modern labor market, this task is closely connected with the future status of labor market since in a consumer society income acquired by work forms the basis of satisfying needs (Ehrenberg – Smith 2003, Galasi 1994).We are not saying anything new by stating the fact that the demand for labor force is determined by new places of work and that an ideal supply of labor force must be adaptable to the requirements of demand. To meet requirements and to be adaptable is possible only if we are armed with the necessary competencies and capital (Hodges – Burchell 2003, Bourdieu 1998). The question, to what extent students in higher education are prepared for changes in the demand for labor force, arises at this point. What can young people expect on the labor market in this ever changing world? What kind of job opportunities and work conditions are there for them, and how much are they prepared to face these changes?
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„Beyond the school...”: The role of Study Halls in the social integration of disadvantaged children
3-27.Views:67Extracurricular activities have a significant role in increasing the disadvantaged Roma children’s school performance and compensate their socialization disadvantages. In the recent years, the study hall program becomes widely known in Hungary. Based on the literature and previous researches the study examines the needs, milestones, goals and target groups of the study hall program. This paper also demonstrates the economic and social conditions of the Integration Program, which has been in operation for 20 years, and supports effectively the development of social competences of disadvantaged social groups.
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Basic income: Sugar-coating over a bitter pill?
159-181Views:55Current and future evolutions in labour markets may be blurring lines between traditional
employment and new types of atypical employment, making it harder to reliably assess whether
someone is receiving any benefits at all. The basic income should be seen as a serious option in
the future, given the changing labor market and the findings from existing cash transfer schemes.BI is not means-tested, so the amount received does not depend on individual or family income or
assets and does not require any work performance, or the willingness to accept a job if offered.
In this study I examine the created image by the media through the method of content
analysis, in relation to basic income. Furthermore, it is analyzed to what extent this effect creates
a negative image of basic income among the students of the University of Debrecen, strengthening
the fear towards this social policy tool. Particular attention is paid to the value choices of young
people focusing on their individualization, motivation of working and willingness to take risks.
