Today, the University of Szeged has nearly 25,000 students, and while its primary goal is to secure full enrollment in state-funded programs, attracting fee-paying students – whether Hungarian or international – is equally important. This is what Chancellor Judit Fendler emphasized when we spoke with her about the university’s experiences so far with the shift to a foundation-based governance model.
The interview also revealed that the university’s revenue has grown from 120 billion forints in 2021 to 275 billion forints today, showing that this is a vast institution with wide-ranging responsibilities. In addition to education, training, research, and healthcare, it is also building strong ties with the corporate sector, including major companies investing in the region, such as BYD and Rheinmetall. The Chancellor noted that under the new system, universities must promote themselves in an open market, which requires a shift in mindset from everyone involved. She emphasized that providing healthcare calls for continuous effort – particularly in retaining well-qualified professionals, which remains the top priority in this field. She also spoke in detail about the university’s private healthcare services.
The following interview is republished here – in English – with the permission of Portfolio.hu. The original Hungarian version can be read here.
Q: The university is now in its fourth academic year since the shift to the foundation-based governance model. That is probably enough time to draw some key conclusions and insights. What are the main lessons learned so far?
A: One of the most positive outcomes of the shift to the foundation-based model is that university funding is now tied to performance and specific indicators. This motivates us to keep improving in every area. Naturally, these indicators also reflect societal and government priorities. Predictability and clear norms are also important – the state has signed a public service funding agreement with us for five years, lasting until the end of 2026, in which we agreed on specific goals and the funding tied to achieving them. Although the agreement is complex and sometimes needs adjustments, the core expectations remain the same, so the university knows what to plan for.
Q: How have the main indicators changed over the past four years, and what do you expect for the future?
A: The figures have generally shown positive trends for us. The university has transformed from a budget-funded public institution into an economic entity. The previous budgetary structure did not encourage saving and made it difficult to launch investments, but now we can plan ahead. In 2021, we had 22,000 students; today we have nearly 25,000. But this number alone doesn’t mean much, as the state determines which programs receive funding and to what extent. In this context, our primary goal is to secure full enrollment in state-funded programs, while recruiting tuition-paying students – both Hungarian and international – is also important.
Q: How does operating with such a broad portfolio influence your program structure?
A: Indeed, as a comprehensive research university, we offer a wider range of programs than more specialized institutions. In this context, there are fields where there is high demand and strong competition for places, while in other areas we have to actively work to recruit students. Teacher training and the training of healthcare professionals are good examples – these are fields where there is a shortage at the societal level, and it is our responsibility to train as many nurses, secondary school teachers, and primary school teachers as possible. We offer teacher training across four faculties, covering everything from kindergarten teachers to secondary school teachers. In these areas, our recruitment strategy differs from that for more popular programs – for instance, we have established special scholarship schemes for teacher training.
Q: How has the funding model changed, and what elements make up the university’s revenue structure today?
A: We perform a variety of public service tasks, which means we have multiple sectoral authorities overseeing us. We operate public education institutions, including primary and secondary schools as well as vocational training programs. But the largest part of our budget comes from higher education and healthcare. We have pass-through revenues, such as money allocated through student unions and student aid funds; we have fixed revenues, like funding for our public education institutions; and we have performance-based revenues, which include our higher education and healthcare income. Each of these falls under different sectoral oversight and operates with a different funding model. Our total revenue has more than doubled since the end of 2021, growing from 120 billion forints to about 275 billion. However, a significant part of this increase comes from sector-specific wage increases for healthcare workers and teachers.
So, the rise in total revenue doesn’t mean we have proportionally more funding to use freely, but it does mean we can manage our resources more strategically, save, and invest from our own sources. Of the 275 billion forints in revenue, 47% – about 130 billion – comes from healthcare funding. The state-funded share of higher education accounts for about 25–30%, while the rest comes from various other sources, including tuition fees paid by fee-paying students.
The two largest segments, healthcare and higher education, together make up about 80% of the university’s income and are funded by the state to deliver public services. Both are performance-based, although funding for healthcare and higher education operates in very different ways.
Q: This shows that the university has strong working relationships with multiple ministries.
A: Exactly. In addition to the Ministry of Culture and Innovation, we have close ties with the Ministry of Interior’s departments for healthcare and public education, and we also collaborate with several other state institutions. For example, we have a strong partnership with the Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency (HIPA), since developments around the university and the growth of the region directly affect our institution. When large companies like BYD or Rheinmetall choose to set up operations here, the university’s presence is one of the strategic factors they consider.
Although BYD’s plant is still under construction, we are already working with them in many areas. They use our occupational health services and environmental monitoring, and we are in constant discussions about how we will support them with training. They mainly expect to hire graduates from our engineering, science, and IT faculties, but they have also already enrolled employees in English-language law and HR courses.
Q: So, this is about international students rather than Hungarian students?
A: Yes. A key aspect of our education services today is that flexible, tailored forms of delivery play an increasingly significant role – whether for companies or for individual students.
Q: You mentioned that international students enrolled in privately funded programs could be an important source of revenue. Have you observed any trends in this area? And are you able to meet their needs with sufficient teaching staff, including international faculty if necessary?
A: That’s a very good question. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, universities first launched English-language programs, mainly in medical training, which at the time was an easy market to reach. Today, that is no longer the case – we face intense competition from medical programs across the region. This goes beyond medicine: we have had to develop English-language programs in pharmacy, nursing, dentistry, and other fields as well. At the same time, we have had to adapt to foreign training structures.
We also launched German-language medical training, although, at first, we could only teach the first two years of the program due to a lack of German-speaking teaching staff. Now, however, the program has been expanding steadily, and this year we will have fifth-year students in the German-language medical track in Szeged. Infrastructure is also very important – international students pay significant tuition fees and expect high-quality training facilities and housing options. We have invested a lot in these areas, too.
Q: Does this include not only buildings but also IT systems and online learning opportunities?
A: Yes, IT systems and online learning platforms as well. For example, Coursera courses – delivered through a unique partnership in our region – are increasingly integrated into teaching. Both international and Hungarian students appreciate these because they can earn flexible, widely recognized so-called micro-credentials accepted by many companies.
In healthcare training, skills labs are also very important. In fact, one of the great competitive advantages of Hungarian medical training is that students have much more direct patient contact and gain real practical experience. But, at the same time, in the skills labs, everything can be modeled using advanced, very expensive equipment and technology.
Building on advancements in healthcare education, our other faculties have also begun developing English-language programs. The influx of Stipendium Hungaricum scholarship holders has greatly supported this growth, pushing our teaching structures to adapt. As a result, many of these programs have now become fully marketable.
Q: We haven’t talked much about research activity so far. One advantage often mentioned in connection with the shift to the foundation-based model is that a university can decide on its research funding more flexibly. Are there any indicators that the university considers as measures of performance, and has there been progress in this area?
A: Yes, our contract does include research indicators. These encompass the number of publications, especially articles published in journals ranked in the top 10% (often referred to as D1, or first decile) and top 25% (Q1) globally. Only specified journals and professional periodicals count towards this benchmark. We also track innovation revenue – that is, whether we can sell any results from our research – as well as patents. So far, we have performed well in these areas, and these activities are now starting to bear real fruit. The University of Szeged places special emphasis on contributing hands-on results to the advancement of science, rather than focusing solely on widely used scientometric performance metrics.
Universities needed a new mindset: they now have to market themselves. This has required a shift in attitude from our researchers, teachers, and other colleagues, and by now, this approach is well established. We have a dedicated technology transfer company, and we actively sell our outstanding research capacities and expertise on the market.
Last year alone, we commercialized developments such as educational support software and a tool that can detect early signs of dementia from speech. This is not limited to one field – from the humanities to IT, everyone has the opportunity to contribute, and the customer base is diverse, too.
Q: So, you have active partnerships with companies as well?
A: I see great potential in the fact that we have connections with many global companies. Over time, these relationships grow beyond simple purchases – they evolve into genuine research collaborations, too. For example, with global companies like GE, Medtronic, or HP, it’s not just about them selling us something; real research and training partnerships are being established.
Q: Does this also help attract top specialists and encourage them to stay at the university?
A: Yes, it is very important for our students and graduates to have the chance to work with advanced technology. For example, with the support of Katalin Karikó, we recently opened a Host–Pathogen Lab, which was an investment worth several hundred million forints. As a matter of fact, her research team in Szeged continues the lines of research she started. For graduating biologists and medical students, it is crucial to have access to such state-of-the-art facilities and equipment.
Q: You and the university’s rector still have two years remaining in your current term – a time often used to review progress and set new directions. What will be the main priorities for the next two years? Will you also play an active role in shaping the university’s new strategy?
A: Further developing excellence in education, healthcare, and research, and adapting to new technologies and expectations are fundamental goals. Many of the investments launched since the shift to the foundation-based model are now beginning to bear fruit, meaning we are increasingly present in the RDI landscape with cutting-edge technologies. It remains very important for us to perform well against the benchmarks by which we are assessed – for example, the rankings, where we consistently place among the top three Hungarian universities and aim to stay there. New indicators have also emerged, such as the entrepreneurial university and green university concepts – we aim to excel in these areas internationally as well.
For me, social responsibility is especially important – ensuring that the university’s capacities and expertise directly serve the community. We have more and more programs for this, which will be expanded in the coming years.
A few years ago, we founded an interdisciplinary research and excellence center that operates across faculties, supporting research spanning multiple fields. We are also developing advanced equipment facilities that can be commercialized. We design these so that they support at least three of the university’s four core activities – education, research, healthcare, and market revenues – with revenue generation always being a key criterion.
Q: Could you share a concrete example to illustrate these developments?
A: One good example is our biobank, which is unique even at the European level. It is an IT-driven, highly advanced facility that stores and makes available for processing the samples we are required to keep as a healthcare institution. In addition, we can offer storage services to external partners. Crucially, we provide not just capacity but specialized expertise, too. I could also mention our sequencing center, our Phase 1 clinical trial site, our supercomputer, our soon-to-be-operational cyclotron, and many other cutting-edge elements of our technology infrastructure.
Q: How are external research activities, such as clinical trials, connected to this?
A: Clinical research is also part of our own revenue streams, and we are definitely expanding in this area. We already have strategic agreements with the top 10 pharmaceutical companies. For them, quality assurance, human resources, and our technological base are key – and we can deliver all of these. As I mentioned, we have a Phase 1 research unit, which is rare in Hungary. This allows us to conduct drug trials on inpatients, which requires a specialized clinical background, quality assurance, skilled staff, and a dedicated patient care unit.
Q: Let’s talk about healthcare as one of the university’s tasks. Most public institutions – and even private clinics – often report that they do not have enough qualified staff. How is the university positioned in this regard?
A: We have to work continuously to meet expectations in this area – ensuring that we have enough doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals.
One of our main goals is to retain skilled healthcare professionals, which is crucial not only for patient care but also because these same experts teach future doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and dentists.
We do not have a separate workforce dedicated solely to practical training – the same experts are also involved in research. It is fundamentally in our interest to retain these excellent colleagues, and for them to see clear reasons to stay at the University of Szeged.
Q: Do you have specific measures in place for this?
A: The University of Szeged has its own private healthcare company. Through this, we can transparently offer additional earning opportunities to our staff – both healthcare workers and doctors – by separating these services clearly in time and space. This is one way we aim to keep them at the university.
Paid inpatient care in Szeged is provided by the limited liability company Mediversal Kft., which is owned by the university. The profit generated there is reinvested in new equipment and advanced technologies – for example, thanks to equipment purchased by Mediversal, we were the first in the region to offer local laser vision correction procedures.
Q: What are the advantages of this type of operational model?
A: Let me give a concrete example to help readers understand this setup. Our company, which can operate more flexibly in the market, purchased a knee surgery robot. Until now, this technology was only available in Hungary through private healthcare. We created a model in which half of the robot’s capacity covers its cost through fee-based services, while the other half is made available to public healthcare under a very favorable leasing arrangement. This is a truly pioneering solution because such equipment cannot be purchased in the public system due to lack of funding – but this approach allows patients who cannot afford private care to benefit from the advanced technology it offers.
Q: What advanced technologies receive adequate state funding?
A: Currently, the National Health Insurance Fund (NEAK) funds one type of robotic technology – for so-called soft tissue surgical procedures – but the actual investments everywhere have been made using grant money. Healthcare funding does not include resources for purchasing advanced technologies, as it mainly covers operational costs, so these can only be financed through grants or the institution’s own resources.
Q: Why is it important for universities to provide access to the most advanced technologies?
A: Providing access to such technologies is a core responsibility for universities, because this is how medical students and residents learn, and this is why foreign companies bring their projects here, allowing us to become reference centers. But as I have emphasized, technology alone is not enough – we must rely on motivated, highly trained professionals.
Q: What role do foreign patients play in this model?
A: We treat many patients from Romania and Serbia. We try to offer fee-based services for procedures that Hungarian patients generally do not choose to pay for privately, since they can access them through the public system – for example, very costly neurosurgical operations. For foreign patients, especially in Romania, it is normal to pay if they want faster access. A significant share of our fee-based care comes from there, and we aim to increase this.
Q: How does Hungarian private healthcare compare to that in Romania?
A: Private healthcare in Romania is much more developed than it is here, precisely because of how their system works. For example, as far as I know, there is not a single spinal surgery robot in Hungary, whereas in Romania there are clinics with two – but they operate exclusively as paid services. Fortunately, Hungary is not yet in a situation where the population depends on private healthcare to such an extent, and hopefully it never will be – that would not be humane.
We must find the optimal balance between state and private care: we have to serve all who turn to our clinics, while private care complements this by welcoming foreign patients and those who, for various reasons, choose private treatment.
Source: Portfolio.hu
