Every year, the European Commission publishes the European Innovation Scoreboard which compares the innovation and R&D performance of EU Member States across 32 indicators. Three of the 32 indicators are closely linked to higher education:

• foreign doctorate students as percentage of all doctorate students;
• new doctorate graduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) per 1000 population aged 25-34; 
• percentage population aged 25-34 having completed tertiary education.

Photo: 123rf

Not only for the three indicators closely related to higher education, but also for all the innovation indicators examined (e.g. R&D expenditures, broadband penetration), Hungary has achieved the best performance in the share of foreign doctorate students compared to the EU average.

The share of foreign doctorate students in Hungarian universities is around 25 per cent compared to 17.8 per cent on average in the EU (putting Hungary’s performance at 146.3 per cent of the EU average in this indicator). By comparison, Hungary’s overall innovation performance based on the 32 indicators is 69.8 per cent of the EU average.

Luxembourg has the highest share of foreign doctorate students among EU Member States, with close to 90 percent, and the Netherlands has almost 50 percent. Hungary has the highest share of foreign doctorate students among the Visegrad countries.