As young researchers, we believe that high-quality public and higher education, research, development and innovation are key to our country’s growth. However, our experience shows that the situation of the young researchers’ community and the next generation of scientists in Hungary is desperate. Low basic salaries and the precariousness of supplementary incomes [1] on the one hand, discourage talented youth from embarking on a career in research, and on the other, many young researchers who are currently active in the field leave the academic and research career paths for reasons of livelihood. The missing volume of researchers cannot be quickly and easily replaced later on because of the 5-10 year time span required to become a researcher, which is likely to put Hungary at a disadvantage for several decades in the very near future.
The flagship strategic action plan of the Ministry of Culture and Innovation, the John von Neumann Programme announced in 2023, has as one of its objectives to increase the number of students pursuing doctoral studies and the number of research and development staff per million inhabitants from 6 273 to 9 000. We believe that these objectives are also of paramount importance, but to achieve them we need to ensure the following:
Of the many problems [1] facing young researchers, the high inflationary environment of recent years has made the abysmally low basic salaries the most critical, which do not even allow for sustaining oneself. Ad hoc salary increases in the higher education sector have lagged far behind increases in overall wage levels and the rising cost of living. To illustrate the situation:
The above amounts are the statutory minimum for state-maintained higher education institutions, which already include the 15+15% salary increase that may be handed out by the employers at their own discretion according to a new measure introduced from 2021/2022. Although these amounts can be increased at the discretion of the institutions, even that does not represent a significant payrise (for example, at ELTE, the basic salary for assistant lecturers is HUF 380 000 gross, while it is HUF 420 000 gross for senior lecturers). Institutions run by public trusts are not covered by the public sector pay scale, but the available data and the informal survey carried out by the Hungarian Young Academy suggest that there is no evidence that basic salaries would have generally increased. In fact, low basic salaries are also common in higher positions, but it is young researchers who are the worst affected by financial hardship.
Providing the extra funding needed to settle basic salaries would be essential for several reasons. Although the actual income of individual researchers is in many cases higher than their basic salaries, a mere examination of sectoral or institutional averages can be misleading and gives a more favourable picture than reality, for the following reasons:
All these factors keep young researchers in a continuous state of (existential) uncertainty, which makes it impossible for them to work in a relaxed, predictable and performance-oriented way as teachers and researchers. Moreover, supplementary income typically entails a significant administrative burden, as well as overtime and stress, which tends to lead to burnout and/or quitting academic careers. At the same time, many segments of the labour market offer much higher incomes with more predictable working conditions and a better work-life balance.
Due to the above reasons, the situation of young researchers working in higher education and research institutions has reached a critical point. Without immediate intervention, the training of professionals with high added-value expertise, the supply of talented young scientists and outstanding research, development and innovation activities may become impossible in the long term in Hungary.
Therefore, we call on policy makers to consider the above and to provide additional resources to increase basic salaries across the whole higher education and research sector, with a particular focus on young researchers. In our view, this would contribute significantly to ensuring a predictable career path for the young Hungarian research community, and would also serve the medium and long-term interests of the national economy.
We will simultaneously send our petition to the competent officials of the Ministry of Culture and Innovation as well as of the Prime Minister’s Office.
With this declaration, we also express our solidarity with the several thousands of employees of universities and research institutes who have put forth their financial requests in an open letter.
Budapest, 15 April 2024
Signatories:
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[1] Németh, B ; Munkácsy B ; Vida ZsV ; Fröhlich G ; Hatvani, IG ; Tóth, Gy ; Solymosi K. ; Máté Á ; Lőrincz L ; Lengyel B. A fiatalok helyzete az akadémiai pályán. Kutatási jelentés. 2022. ISBN: 978-615-6448-18-7, DOI: https://doi.org/10.36820/fka.2022
[2] Németh, B ; Munkácsy, B ; Vida, ZsV ; Fröhlich, G ; Hatvani, IG ; Tóth, Gy ; Solymosi, K ; Máté, Á ; Lőrincz, L ; Lengyel, B. Egyenlőtlenségek a magyarországi fiatal kutatók között: tanulságok a Fiatal Kutatók Akadémiájának 2021-es felméréséből. MAGYAR TUDOMÁNY 184:12 pp. 1529-1543. (2023)
[3] Hartmann, B ; Bálint, E ; Kovács, KE ; Lipták, K ; Máté, Á ; Wilhelm, I ; Zsidó, NA. Az ösztöndíjak és támogatások szerepe a fiatal kutatói életpálya során. MAGYAR TUDOMÁNY 184: 12 pp. 1566-1574.(2023)