Hundreds of scientists at Hungary's universities may lose their jobs after the government mandated a 7.5% raise for faculty on January 1 but did not provide enough money to cover the extra expense.
Hungary's universities-which are financed by the state-are now obliged to find an extra 4 billion Hungarian Forints (HUF) ($20 million USD) to fund the salary increases. As many as 2,318 academic and support jobs could be cut in the next few months, according to a statement by Antal Stark, deputy under-secretary for Economic Affairs at the Hungarian Ministry of Education, which was reported earlier this month by Eduport, a Hungarian news portal for higher education. Among those jobs are 518 academic positions, representing 3.4% of the country's total university teaching staff. Most of the positions are in science.
An education ministry spokesperson confirmed the numbers. The threat to science departments has triggered a protest from the deans ...
