Every year, in the first two weeks of January, hundreds of students in Pakistan submit an application on which not one rupee is spent, and those whose luck turns are sitting in some European university the following September — without paying fees, and in fact drawing a stipend from the government every month. In that same January, in that same city, some other young men are sitting in an agent’s office handing over one hundred and fifty to two hundred thousand rupees in the name of “processing charges” for that very same application.
Both are after the same thing. Its name is Stipendium Hungaricum, and it is the Hungarian government’s scholarship programme. The only difference is that the first group knew that the application is free.
Why Hungary?
Hungary is a member of the European Union, it lies in Central Europe, and the history of its universities goes back several hundred years — especially in medicine, engineering and agriculture. Compared with Western Europe, life here is cheap. And the most important thing is that Hungary has education agreements with roughly seventy or more countries around the world, and Pakistan is one of them. Under that same agreement, places are set aside every year for Pakistani students.
This is worth repeating, because the general impression among us about Europe is that all the doors are shut and open only with money or through an agent. This is a door that is open, that is official, and whose key lies only in your marks and your application.
What Stipendium Hungaricum actually gives
This is not only a fee waiver. An approved student generally gets four things:
- The full tuition fee — that is, not a single forint has to be paid to the university.
- A monthly stipend — for bachelor’s and master’s students roughly 43,700 Hungarian forints a month (about 115 euros), while for a PhD this amount is several times higher.
- Accommodation — either a place in the university hostel, or a monthly housing allowance instead of it.
- Medical insurance — the health insurance required by Hungarian law is included in the scholarship.
Now the honest part. This stipend is not a large amount. On 43,700 forints you cannot live like a prince in Budapest — it is for food and basic expenses, and if you get a hostel place you get by. Most students work part-time alongside or take some help from home. The agent who tells you that with this scholarship you will send money home is lying. The real value here is the waived tuition, which is a saving of hundreds of thousands of rupees.
The application goes to two places — and this is where people come to grief
This programme is an agreement between two governments, so the application process is in two parts as well. Understand this and you have won half the battle.
Part one — your own country’s side. In every participating country there is a body called the “sending partner”. In Pakistan this work has traditionally been done through the Higher Education Commission (HEC). You submit your application on the HEC portal, and HEC nominates candidates to the Hungarian side according to its own criteria.
Part two — the Hungarian side. At the same time you also have to submit a complete application on Stipendium Hungaricum’s own online portal, where you choose your preferred universities and programmes. Then the Hungarian university looks at your papers, often takes an online interview or an entrance test, and finally the decision comes.
Remember: both applications are compulsory. If one is left out, the other is of no use. Every year many Pakistani students are eliminated simply because they filled in the form on one portal and left the other, saying “we will see to it later”.
The dates are strict
This is an annual cycle and there is no flexibility in it. The application window generally opens around November and closes in the middle of January — in recent years the deadline for Pakistan has been 15 January, and that too at a fixed time, on the evening of that day. After that the portal is shut, the matter is finished, next year.
The academic year begins in September. That is, the result of the January application comes in June or July and you sit in class in September. The meaning of this is that you should start preparing at least a year in advance: the language certificate, letters of recommendation, the motivation letter, attestation of degrees. All of this cannot be put together in the last week of December.
Every year the conditions, the required documents and the dates change a little. So before deciding, go to stipendiumhungaricum.hu and studyinhungary.hu and read that year’s announcement yourself, and look at the advertisement issued for Pakistan on the HEC website.
The competition is hard — understand this from the first day
Places are limited and applications run into the thousands. Good marks, a relevant subject, a clean motivation letter and an English certificate — even all of these together do not give a guarantee. Let nobody tell you “yours will go through”. Nobody has that power at all.
What really makes a difference is that your choice should be made sensibly. In the most popular programme at the best-known university in Budapest the competition is highest. In strong programmes in cities like Debrecen, Szeged, Pécs or Miskolc the chances may be better, and the degree is just as European.
Studying at your own expense — the second, less well-known route
If you do not get the scholarship, that is not the end. Studying at your own expense in Hungary is considerably cheaper than in Western Europe. The fee for most bachelor’s and master’s programmes is roughly between 3,000 and 7,000 euros a year. Medicine and dentistry are far more expensive — there the fee can be several times higher, so anyone thinking of medicine should first look at the university’s own fee sheet.
Treat all these amounts as approximate. The fee is different for every programme and changes every year. Before any calculation, verify it on the website of the university concerned.
A realistic estimate of monthly costs
This is an ordinary student’s approximate monthly expenditure. Budapest is expensive, the smaller cities are clearly cheaper.
| Item | Budapest (approx., euros) | Smaller cities (approx., euros) |
|---|---|---|
| Accommodation (shared room or hostel) | 200 – 400 | 120 – 250 |
| Food and drink | 150 – 220 | 120 – 180 |
| Transport (student pass) | 10 – 15 | 10 – 15 |
| Electricity, internet, phone | 50 – 90 | 40 – 70 |
| Health insurance (if not included in the scholarship) | 25 – 60 | 25 – 60 |
| Total | 450 – 780 | 320 – 570 |
For the visa and the residence permit, Hungary’s immigration authority asks you to prove that you have money to live on during your stay — a bank statement, the scholarship letter, or a sponsor’s affidavit. The required amount is fixed and keeps changing, so find out the latest limit from the embassy or the immigration authority before your application.
Language: study in English, life in Hungarian
For international students, hundreds of programmes are taught entirely in English, and most of the Pakistanis who come under Stipendium Hungaricum enrol in these. For admission, IELTS or an equivalent certificate is generally asked for.
But step outside the classroom and it is a world of the Hungarian language. The government office, the doctor’s clinic, the housing contract, and above all work — Hungarian is useful in all of them. Hungarian is not an easy language, but it is also true that the student who learns enough Hungarian to manage within two years has far better prospects of staying in the country after his studies than the others. Most universities run a beginners’ Hungarian course free or for a nominal fee. Do not skip it.
Work during your studies, and after it
In Hungary a student residence permit carries limited permission to work — a limited number of hours a week during the academic year and more during the holidays. This limit has changed from time to time, so treat only the condition written on your own permit as valid, not something heard from a senior.
After completing their studies, graduates can get a permit of limited duration to look for a job, and if a job is found a move to a work permit is possible.
But one thing must be written here quite plainly. Hungary has tightened its immigration laws considerably in recent years. The new law that came into force in 2024 rearranged the types of permit afresh, restricted permanent residence and the right to bring family in several categories, and the overall attitude is far more cautious than before. This means that it is a mistake to regard study in Hungary as “a sure route to settling in Europe”. It is an excellent educational opportunity and a European degree — whatever lies beyond that depends on your degree, your field and the law at that time. The agent who sells the scholarship as “a route to PR” is selling you something he does not have at all.
Some well-known public universities
These are Hungary’s well-known public institutions where there are English-language programmes for international students. Look at the programmes, fees and admission requirements on each institution’s own website.
- Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) — Budapest, among Hungary’s oldest and largest universities
- Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) — a centre of engineering and technology
- University of Debrecen — a large number of international students, especially in medicine and agriculture
- University of Szeged — strong in research, the city cheap and quiet
- University of Pécs — Hungary’s oldest university, a wide range of English programmes
- Semmelweis University — a well-known university for medicine and health sciences
- Corvinus University of Budapest — economics, business and social sciences
- Óbuda University — Budapest, applied engineering and technology
- University of Miskolc — engineering and materials science
- Széchenyi István University (Győr) — automotive and mechanical engineering
Deceptions: remember these four things
First — the application is free. There is no fee for submitting the Stipendium Hungaricum application. Not on the HEC portal, and not on the Hungarian portal either. If someone is asking you for hundreds of thousands in the name of “application charges” or a “processing fee”, then he is taking money from you for something you can do yourself from your mobile phone. Yes, translation, attestation, IELTS and courier cost real money — but that is in thousands, not hundreds of thousands.
Second — nobody can sell a “guarantee”. The decision is made by HEC and the Hungarian university. The person who assures you that he has a “contact” is either lying or is about to involve you in a process whose end is a rejected application and a spoiled record.
Third — fake admission letters. Some people make “admission letters” and sell them. The embassy has every letter verified with the university. If you are caught, it is not only the visa that goes; a record is attached to your name that follows you in every European country afterwards.
Fourth — old information. The stipend amount, the deadlines, and the immigration laws — all three have changed in the last two or three years. Do not make a plan by watching a 2021 video on YouTube. Check every figure against this year’s official page.
What you should do in practice
- Go today to stipendiumhungaricum.hu and studyinhungary.hu and see which subjects have places this year.
- Read the advertisement issued for Pakistan and the eligibility conditions on the HEC website.
- Take the English test (IELTS or equivalent) well in advance — the result takes weeks to come.
- Complete the attestation of degrees and certificates before November.
- Write the motivation letter yourself. A copied letter is caught, and a weak letter sinks even strong marks.
- Choose three or four programmes thoughtfully — not just the best-known names in Budapest.
This article is here to show you the way, not to guarantee any outcome. The conditions of Stipendium Hungaricum, the stipend amount, the fees and Hungary’s immigration laws are reviewed every year and have changed several times in recent years. All the figures given here are estimates. Before applying, verify every figure and every date against the official portal and HEC’s own announcement — and do not pay anyone to do work you can do yourself for free.
