Portuguese and Hungarian university funding systems moving away from the state (EUA funding forum)

"The Catholic University of Portugal is a not-state public institution, our biggest income stream is tuition and competitive funding, but our cost structure is very similar to state public universities. The needs of universities have no end but there are priorities and for us, it is to keep a qualified workforce", declares Isabel Gill, rector of the Catholic University of Portugal on 03/10/2024 during the EUA funding forum, taking place in Helsinki (Finland) on 03 and 04/10/2024.

"We have been in a situation where we lacked funds and couldn’t increase tuition because the average income in Portugal is low and students are struggling, so we worked with our American counterparts to create a sustainable environment, mainly through business projects and philanthropy."

In Hungary, Corvinus University is one of the 21 universities affected by a change of model introduced by the government in 2019: the management structure of universities was transformed with the transfer of the majority of public institutions to "foundation universities", supported by foundations.

"This new model has allowed…