The need for changes in the Hungarian agricultural higher education training programme

Pupos, Tibor

Keywords: agricultural education and training, Bologna process, credit, multicycle training system, qualification frameworks, J21, Q18, R23

Not all the questions about the topic outlined in the title can be answered. Apart from the article page limits, the answers to the questions are extremely complex. Moreover, the author does not consider himself to be an expert in the field for all related issues. Therefore, within the framework of the article the author’s aim is to highlight the professional problems considered by him (he has spent more than forty years in agricultural higher education and has experienced several higher education reforms as an educator and as a member of decision-making bodies e.g. Vice-Dean for Educational Affairs, MAB Expert and Special Committee) to be the most important in agricultural higher education, despite many completed developments. The related macroeconomic relationships are not discussed in detail as there is no shortage of longterm strategies formulating the desired vision (lifelong learning, knowledge economy, European competitiveness of higher education etc.). Of the related issues, the author focuses on training programmes and curricula, at the level of which competitiveness and meeting the expectations of the labour market are basically determined, and is looking for answers to questions that clearly define the frames and are published less than necessary. If there are no substantive changes to the important issues, such as the focus of knowledge transfer on meeting the expectations of the labour market, eliminating the atomisation of knowledge and changing the system of financing higher education (including the generational renewal), agrarian higher education will not be able to meet the expectations that - in the future - will be generated by the increasing requirements of agriculture.

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