This year 40 Irish students headed off to Hungary for their third-level study. The majority are studying to become vets, some doctors.
But is studying overseas a viable option for Irish students who have missed the CAO boat and can they expect to return to jobs here when they have qualified?
If the points race is getting sluggish, there's more to it that a drop in student numbers. All through the system new escape valves are allowing Irish students to get around the squeezes created by the CAO. There was a time when aspirant doctors, consultants, dentists and vets could only compete for the small amount of places offered through the CAO. Now it's possible for many more to get into the professions without recourse to the points system.
In September 40 Irish students headed to Hungary to study medicine, veterinary medicine, physiotherapy, dentistry and pharmacy. Around a quarter of these were school leavers who had failed to make the CAO grade at home. The others were mature students (23 years of age and over) who had qualified and worked in other fields before deciding to pursue their dream of a career in the health sciences.
Brian Mooney of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors travelled to Budapest recently to check on their progress. No student has graduated as yet from the Hungarian system, but there are over 100 enrolled in Hungary at various stages of their degree programmes.
"By far the most popular programme with Irish students here is veterinary science," says Mooney, who has been receiving queries from Irish students on the Hungary option for several years now, and wanted to investigate the system for himself.
"With less than 70 undergraduate places available on the veterinary medicine programme at UCD, and random selection at 550 points, it's hardly surprising that 27 Irish students enrolled for the degree course in Budapest this September."
The Veterinary Council of Ireland has a bilateral agreement with Szt Istvan University's faculty of veterinary science in Budapest ensuring that returning graduates can be registered with the council, in order to work here. With almost 2,400 Irish vets registered, there is little concern in veterinary circles of this new graduate stream flooding the system.
Despite the cost, it's a viable option for many students, especially those from outside Dublin who would have to travel to our expensive capital to study veterinary science at UCD. In Budapest the five-year doctor of veterinary medicine degree costs over €11,500 a year, but with rent in the Hungarian capital coming in at about €200 to €250 per month and food prices approximately two-thirds of Irish prices, Budapest is a lot cheaper to live in than Dublin. This means a sizeable proportion of tuition fees can be clawed back.
Would-be medics are heading for Hungary too, but in much smaller numbers. This year six Irish students took up places on medical science degree programmes at universities in Budapest (Semmelweis), Szeged and Pecs, according to Mooney, who visited the medical faculty in Semmelweis.
"Medical students in the Hungarian system study for six years, the first two years cover the basic scientific subjects underlying a medical degree. There then follows a pre-clinical year, followed by two years of classical clinical studies followed by a final year of clinical rotation. Fees are €10,800 per year."
As Mooney points out, six years at €10,800 is not small change, but neither is it hard to come by if you're planning to graduate with a medical degree. Not everyone needs a rich daddy to get this kind of money from a bank - especially when the earning power of a medical professional is so promising. With clinical rotations taken care of in Hungary, future graduates returning to Ireland should, according to the Irish Medical Council, have no problems registering here and going on to train for general practice, hospital consultancy or other positions.
"Unless a student is coming back to Ireland looking to do an internship in an Irish hospital, which could prove difficult when they are up against students of Irish universities, there should be no problem for a graduate to come back here and begin training as a GP," says Fionan O'Cuinneagain of the Irish Council of General Practitioners. "Students can also undertake their GP training in an accredited university in any EU member state, which will take a further three or four years."
O'Cuinneagain does not foresee any problems with a potential rise in returning graduates from medical training programmes in Hungary or elsewhere. "As it stands, there are good opportunities for GPs in Ireland and with a bulge in retirements anticipated over the next six or seven years, that's set to continue."
There are currently 115 general practice training places available in Ireland but there are moves to increase that to 150 by 2008.
Because programmes in medicine, dentistry, veterinary science, physiotherapy and a range of other disciplines have been available in Hungary since the mid-1990s, there are few obstacles to Irish students hoping to realise their career ambitions without recourse to the CAO, provided the jobs are here when they return. Places are allotted on the strength of oral interviews held at the Hungarian Embassy in Dublin. If students meet the required standards in biology and chemistry, they may be offered a place. According to Mooney, the Irish students are faring well academically.
"The dean of the veterinary faculty was enormously pleased with the quality of the Irish students. He said that of all the students in the English and German veterinary language programmes, the Irish had the highest standards of scientific knowledge," says Mooney.
The dean expressed disappointment, however, with the failure of Irish students to integrate on Hungarian campuses, although he said this was characteristic of many international students.
Brian Mooney, who spent some time chatting with the Irish in Budapest, was also struck by the social enclave they inhabited.
"When I met with over 20 Irish veterinary students in the vet college on the first full day of my trip I discovered that they were unaware of the violence that had occurred over the previous week, during the 50th anniversary of the 1956 rising against Soviet domination," Mooney observes. "The students readily admitted that they got their news from the RTÉ website, and lived in a social bubble made up of their fellow Irish students from within the vet faculty itself, which numbered over 80, and from the much smaller numbers of Irish students studying medicine, physiotherapy and dentistry in Budapest. Wearing Munster rugby shirts and hanging out in Beckett's Irish Bar, the students I spoke to seemed to be almost totally untouched by any aspect of Hungarian society."
Overall, Mooney came away with the impression that Hungary is a viable option for the right Irish student. "For someone with a good academic background, the capacity to do well in an examination based on biology and chemistry and a strong desire to qualify in medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, etc, the option of studying in Hungary is one that should certainly be considered, especially if study in Ireland or the UK is not an option, given points requirement at undergraduate level and intense competition for places."
