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Legal status of immigrant students

Immigrant students submitted a number of complaints to the Office objecting to that owing to their foreign citizenship they have to pay for training in higher education institutions and that they were entitled to students' benefits.

In our view, in general, discrimination concerning foreign students with respect to charges and benefits should be regarded as acceptable. Immigrant students, however, should be judged according to different criteria. From the date of the issuance of a Hungarian identity card, an immigrant is treated by the Act on Higher Education and its enacting clauses in the same way, as are students of Hungarian citizenship. Consequently, immigrant students may participate in state-financed training and they are also entitled to scholarship.

In view of the above, in three cases we formulated initiatives to the heads of higher education institutions to ensure that immigrant students be regarded as of equal legal status with Hungarian students. They should be treated equally with Hungarian students in respect to all of the rights and benefits available to Hungarian citizens, as according to the relevant law statutes. Our initiatives were accepted in each case. (VI/174/2000. VI/374/2000., VI/402/2000. VI/408/2000. VI/435/2000.)

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