Pricing Policies at Public Universities in Hungary

The structure of higher education is constantly changing world-wide - including Hungary. The traditional view of Higher Education as a ‘public good' financed by the state, is weakening since it is becoming increasingly obvious that governments cannot afford to finance the growing demand for Higher education. The consequence of these trends in Hungary is that, whilst some students are financed by the government, the rest pay tuition fees. The paper discusses the possible methods which a public University may use when calculating its tuition fee for a given field of study. The advantages and disadvantages of cost-based pricing, ongoing pricing, and value-based pricing are discussed. The study introduces a model for calculating the life-cycle value of a degree, which may help in a comparison of the pricing methods of the competing institutions