Debrecen4U
November 13, 2025
The University of Debrecen welcomes more international students than ever
The number of foreign students at the University of Debrecen continues to grow; almost 7,800 are able to study at the University of Debrecen in the 2025/2026 academic year, unideb.hu reports.
According to Attila Jenei, Director of the International Education Coordination Center, in order to maintain the popularity gained in the international student market and increase competitiveness, the continuous development of the English-language training system is necessary.
For the 2025/2026 academic year, the University of Debrecen has announced more than 100 English-language training courses—preparatory, BSc, MSc, and PhD programs. The International Education Coordination Centre registered almost 36 thousand applications during the admissions process and conducted more than 7 thousand admissions.
“The admissions data, in terms of the number of applicants, were in line with our plans formulated in the autumn of 2024. At the same time, the experiences of recent years show that those of our training courses that are less attractive to young people in the domestic education system cannot be truly competitive at the international level—even in English. That is why it is important to raise the standard of the training, as our goal is to advertise English-language training courses that provide up-to-date, valuable knowledge on the labor market and facilitate the quick, successful placement and employment of our students,” Attila Jenei told hirek.unideb.hu.
According to the head of the International Education Coordination Center of the University of Debrecen, in order for the University of Debrecen to continue to keep up with the international education market, in addition to training development, a quality assurance system needs to be introduced.
“During the enrollment, we continued our intensive marketing campaign in addition to the continuous monitoring of our target groups. We have opened up to new markets, and we have restructured the system of our recruitment agencies and are continuously establishing local offices,” said Attila Jenei.
This academic year, a significant number of foreign students are arriving at the university within the framework of the Stipendium Hungaricum scholarship program. Compared to the record number of applications in 2024, the university received more than 10 percent more applications, almost 31 thousand, which is almost 35-40 percent of the national applications.
“Based on the decision of the Board of Trustees of the Tempus Public Foundation, 756 students were able to begin their studies at UD with state support. Significant growth can also be observed in the area of our paid training programs; we registered 30 percent more applications this year compared to last year. Summarizing the data, more than 2,300 foreign first-year students began their studies at the university in the 2025/26 academic year, thus increasing the number of our international student community to approximately 7,800, which represents a 2 percent increase compared to the previous year,” explained the director of NOKK.
The University of Debrecen launched the UD International Scholarship program in 2024 to support students, in which applicants could receive a 30-90 percent tuition fee discount.
“In addition to unfavorable international demographic trends and the global political situation, the limited availability of apartments and dormitory places at the local level is the biggest challenge. Approximately fifteen hundred affordable dormitory places are still needed for development,” explained Attila Jenei.
In the 2025/2026 academic year, medical and health programs were the most popular among foreign students applying to the University of Debrecen, with almost a third of them choosing the programs of the Faculty of General Medicine, the Faculty of Dentistry, the Faculty of Pharmacy, and the Faculty of Health Sciences. Among the non-med, i.e., non-medical and health education programs, the most applicants were for the English-language programs offered by the Faculty of Informatics, the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Technology, and the Faculty of Engineering. The most popular programs were oversubscribed by eight to twelve times.
Source: dehir.hu | Photo credit: Debrecen városa Facebook
