Hungarian secondary school pupils do not like traveling. Most choose colleges that are as close as possible to their home. In 2005, 58 per cent of pupils from the 168 small towns in the country chose a college or faculty that was within their own county.
A further 40 per cent indicated a first preference for an institution in a neighbouring county. Looking at students' top three preferences, the trend is even clearer, with a marked preference for institutions in the home county or a neighbouring one.
There are exceptions, however, with small clusters of towns whose students demonstrate a desire to get away. In Nograd and Jasz-Nagykun-Szolnok counties, a majority of students preferred an institution outside their own county. The same went, to a lesser degree, for Komarom-Esztergom, Somogy and Zala. There is no surprise here: these counties have few higher educational institutions. The Budapest College of Business has branches in Zalaegerszeg and Salgotarjan, there is a college in Szolnok, and Godollo has an annex in Jaszbereny - but all of these are small institutions.
So even in towns where students appear to be mobile, it would seem that it is not out of choice. In counties where there is plenty of choice, university applicants show no desire to hit the road. Almost all students from
Baranya (Pecs) and Csongrad (Szeged) stay inside their own county, and much the same can be said of Gyor-Moson-Sopron, Hajdu-Bihar (Debrecen) and Pest counties.
