Gabriella PUSZTAI, Enikő MAIOR, Zsuzsanna DEMETER- DEMETER-KARÁSZI
4. Case study on training development strategy in Hungarian Church-related higher education institutions
We tried to estimate the answer of Hungarian church-related higher education institutions to the competitive situation by analyzing their strategies in launching courses. We collected data from the database of the Hungarian Accreditation Committee from 2005 to 2019.
While analyzing the data, we wanted to answer the following question: how and which direction did the institutions developed their training provisions?
The 21 church-related higher education institutions had 230 detailed training plans in order to start new training programs. Almost half of the petitions targeted bachelor (108), 94 targeted masters, 23 targeted undivided masters and only 6 targeted vocational higher education training. It is therefore concluded that the institutions work in the Bologna two-cycle degree structure.
The analysis was made by using open coding of the training. Two independent encoders realized the coding. The training launched by the church-related higher education institutions can be divided into three groups. The first group consist of those training which are from the field of classical theology. The second group is composed of training which are traditional secular training, and which can also be found in public higher education institutions in the same form, and last but not least the third group embodies the
training where the religious identity is mixed with secular training. In our study, we analyze the newly submitted petitions, and we do not deal with the law or sciences training which stability is unquestionable on more prominent institutions.
Considering all this, the coded types are the following: (1) theological trainings/courses; (2) semi-professions (secular social assistant/helper); (3) teacher education trainings; (4) (further) arts and humanities; (5) religious/theological oriented social assistant; (6) religious/theological oriented arts and humanities; (7) religious/theological oriented teacher education; (8) further secular trainings. In addition to this, four petitions were on foreign language trainings.
Among the trainings the most popular, about every four, are trainings on arts and humanities, the second in popularity is the classical theological trainings and after that the teacher education. A significant proportion of the trainings wants to prepare the students for such a work which directly services religious communities, which means a conscious construction from the church-related higher education institutions.
Figure 1 The number and the type of the training plans initiated by the church-related higher education institutions between 2005 and 2019
The church-related higher education institutions basically can be divided into three categories (1) more prominent institutions with many faculties; (2) fundamentally theological institutions; (3) functioning with non-theological purposes, which does not
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
religious oriented arts and humanities religous oriented teacher education semi-professions further seculat trainings religious oriented social assistant teacher education theological trainings arts and humanities
permit the establishment of independent faculties. The first category consists of 2, the second 18 and the third consist of 1 institution.
We have analyzed what kind of trainings initiated to establish on this basis and what kind of mission, the strategy can be identified in the different categories. While we were investigating on the level of the trainings the differences have become evident. The fundamentally theological institutions want to establish mainly bachelor courses, whereas the more prominent institutions with many faculties want to establish master courses, which shows that under a subsystem, the division of labour is present. The initiations of the undivided masters and the vocational higher education trainings are at a modest level characterized by the fundamentally theological institutions.
Regardless of whether these initiatives have succeeded or not, have got the accreditation or not, it can be demonstrated that the church-related institutions want to expand their bachelor and master levels of their trainings offer.
Figure 2 The distributions by educational level among the different types of church-related higher education institutions
When we analyzed the contents of the trainings we have focused on the following question: to what kind of career does the training prepare according to the sectoral nature of work and to the knowledge conveyed?
As a result of the open coding, the established categories shows that the more prominent church-run universities intend to take such steps on the path to development just like the public universities. For example, they would like to establish trainings on the field of arts and humanities, on the field of social sciences, on the field of education in a non-religious content and also on the field of economics and computer sciences. This model is pointing in the direction of the public universities, tries to reach equality, the diverse trainings, just like public institutions. This type of institution prepares the students for a secular career, not related to institutions of churches.
The fundamentally theological institutions kept their religious identity, which can be seen on the aspects of the trainings. For example, a strong ambition can be seen on the preparation for religious-oriented social worker trainings, which shows that these institutions want to help the religious and social institutional system by preparing an appropriate workforce. It is clear that the mission of these institutions for such trainings is completely different from the previous one.
In the case of the third category, functioning with non-religious purposes, such a definite strategy cannot be drawn.
Figure 3 Training orientation of different church-run institutions in higher education
Churches can be conceptualised as the international justice system. Previously, we have dealt with the international networks of church-related institutions, and we have demonstrated its impact on the teacher and student mobility (Pusztai, Kozma, 2008), but we have not analyzed on what extent do they involve in the internalization of the trainings.
According to our data, we can tell, that the more prominent church-related institutions three and the fundamentally theological institutions established one training in English during the last period. Of course, further investigation is needed, but we can state that this opens a new chance of engagement, because in a substantial part outside Europe there is no chance to establish religious trainings.
5. Conclusion
The study takes stock of consequences with those definitions which determine the segment of church-related higher education. In this study, we wanted to determine the own identity of church-related higher education institutions by analyzing the innovations relying on the training provisions. The previous supplementary role has been replaced with the role which responds to the competitive situation. We considered that the initiations of the Hungarian church-related higher education institutions show that they are highly active and determined in the field of development. The more prominent church-related institutions with many faculties will compete with the public institutions. The fundamentally theological institutions are also highly active in the initiations, only just their mission is different; they want to enrich the skills of the social respondent of the church-related higher education institutions.
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