Hungary to quadruple its support to Fulbright by 2022

Fulbright Hungary is proud to announce that the Government of Hungary has decided to quadruple its contribution to the Fulbright Commission by 2022. Starting in 2020, support has doubled to $344,000. After another increment in 2021, by 2022 support is expected to reach $690,000 per year (HUF 200 million, subject to exchange rate fluctuations). With this largest ever increase and absolute amount, Hungary and the United States will be near parity.

In Hungarian forint term, Hungarian government support in 2019 was HUF 50 million and raised to HUF 100 million in 2020, HUF 150 million in 2021 and finally HUF 200 million in 2022.

The bilateral, so-called “Pre-Commission” program started in 1978 in Hungary, with over 1,100 Hungarian and 900 US alumni to date. With the signing of the first bilateral agreement in 1990, the Commission has been in operation since February, 1992.

This increase, along with continued US support (approx. $850,000 annually) at current levels, would mean the following:

*Higher levels of tuition support for Hungarian students, as well as larger stipends for US grantees in Hungary and Hungarian grantees in the US, increasing ouor competitiveness.

*Shorter lists of alternate grantees, that is, a larger portion of high-quality applicants may receive support in contrast to our usual waiting lists.

*Thanks to cost-sharing agreements with US and Hungarian universities, we will increase the number of grantees from the historical average of about 40 to 50 in AY 2020, and by 2022, we expect to have 60 grantees per year.

*We will continue to encourage applications representing all fields and all geographic areas in both countries. First-generation students, traditionally underrepresented persons from universities new to Fulbright and urban universities are particularly welcome. In Hungary we recruit intensively outside of Budapest and seek to place US grantees in all parts of the country.

*We are competing with 160 countries in the global Fulbright program, and have experienced twice to three times as many applicants as we have slots.

*Down the road, we will continue to support academic and geographic diversity, but expect to place a larger emphasis on the STEM fields starting in the Academic Year 2021-22 recruiting cycle.

Press Conference from left to right: Marc Dillard, Deputy Chief of Mission, U.S. Embassy in Hungary; Károly Jókay, Executive Director, Fulbright Hungary, Zsigmond Perényi, State secretary for EU funds, Ministry for Innovation and Technology