CHALLENGES OF HUNGARIAN HIGHER EDUCATION IN UKRAINE

Hungarians in Ukraine have a well organized educational system that covers institutions from the kindergarten to the university. At first glance it may look like that the maintenance of the Transcarpathian Hungarians in Ukraine is guaranteed, however,we have to see that minority education (which is one of the key-issue of the maintenance of the community) is threatened by several factors. In the given paper I will take under investigation only two of these factors. On the one hand the Ukrainian state language policy would like to strengthen the position of the state language even at the expense of other languages and education is used as a means of achieving these aims. On the other hand, while education is one of the effective and powerful means of achieving social goals of the minority and choosing the language of instruction is a crucial part of language education policy, minority universities neglect serious language planning activity. It is high time for every institute to work out an individual university language policy taking into account their own aims and personal conditions.