09 - Hungary - Organisation of the academic year

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.

Institution:

Oktatási és Kulturális Minisztérium
1055 Budapest, Szalay u. 10-14.
Tel.:(36 1) 473-7000
Website: http://www.okm.gov.hu


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Date: 2009
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