There is no nationally applicable regulation issued by the Ministry of Education and Culture (
Oktatási és Kulturális Minisztérium)
concerning the organisation of Hungarian tertiary education. The
institutions are open all year, except on Sundays and state as well as
church holidays (these holidays number 11 in Hungary). Apart from that,
several institutions are closed between Christmas and New Year.
Organising the school year is within the competence of
the institutions of tertiary education, and is determined by the
institution’s board based on the proposal of the head of the
institution. Thus the organisation of the school year is the
responsibility of an individual institution, and does not change from
one type of programme to the other within the same institution.
The
school year consists characteristically of an autumn term and a spring
term. Both fall into a study period and an exam period. The study
period is typically 15 weeks per term, and the exam period is 6 weeks
in each term. The autumn term begins any time between 1 and 10
September (varies with every institution) to last until the end of
January, while the spring term begins early in February (between 1 and
10), and ends late in June. In about half of the institutions there is
a one week holiday during the spring term around Easter. In a small
part of institutions the school year consists of three study periods
(trimesters).
The exam period in the autumn term usually lasts
from mid December to end of January, and, in the spring term from mid
May until end of June.
The curricular week lasts five days
(Monday to Friday). Saturdays are officially non-teaching days, but the
students may enter the building (may study in the library, and may use
the IT labs, and may work on a students’ circle project at one of the
departments, or may use the institution’s cultural and sport
facilities). The same holds for the summer holiday.
The study
and examination regulation of the institutions of tertiary education
lay down the number of days that the head of the institution may rule
to be a non-teaching day for all students of the institution in
addition to general bank holidays (that number is usually not more than
five days), and the number of days that the head of a faculty may rule
to be a non-teaching day for all students of the faculty in addition to
general bank holidays (that number is usually not more than five days).
The
number of lessons per week held by the teachers during the study period
may change between 20 and 30 lessons, a number that may differ from
course to course in an institution.
Lecturers and those in a
research position employed in a performance based promotional system
must teach at least 12 hours per week from their weekly working hours
according to the 2005 Act on Higher Education.
In the multi
cycle structure, in bachelor (undergraduate) studies the 2005 Act on
Higher Education differentiates the undergraduate study programmes that
are practice-bound. Concerning these programmes the training is
supplemented with one semester of continuous external practical
training for 30 credits. The period of education is 7 semesters
together with the practice. An important question when organizing the
academic year is how it can be ensured that bachelor (undergraduate)
studies and master studies are built on each other.