Expansion of Higher Education in Hungary: Consequences and Constraints

The aim of the article is to outline the ongoing changes in the structure of secondary and higher education in Hungary. The change of regime induced definitive processes on both educational levels, enabled the irreversible expansion of higher education and the diversification of higher level training, which had serious impacts on secondary level vocational education. The author sketches the institutional, structural and legitimacy crises of which vocational training system has been suffering since 1990. Comparing with foreign models and based on data of the graduates' qualification structure, he formulates proposals aiming at reaching a respectable balance between secondary and higher level vocational training, replacing the present “competition model” with a “pedagogical model for development”.