Language Exam Requirement Scrapped by the Government

The governing majority of Hungarian Parliament adopted a law on the reform of higher education requirements on Wednesday that, among other things, abolished the language exam requirement for issuing university degrees.

According to the new regulation, universities will be able to decide for themselves what language skills they expect their students to have, and the state will also entrust the organization of the related training to the institutions.

This means that the foreign language requirements may vary from university to university. Universities will now also have to ensure that they "provide the necessary foreign language teaching and appropriate assessment of foreign language skills for the exercise of the qualification."

The new rules will be introduced in a progressive system, but students who do not obtain a diploma without a language test will also be exempted from taking the language test.

The requirements for doctoral studies will also be relaxed: instead of a language exam, only "language proficiency" will be expected under the adopted amendment. Previously, knowledge of two foreign languages necessary for the field of study was compulsory, but now the university itself can choose one or more of these languages.