Role of talent management in higher education has improved in the first years of the21st century all over
the word.
Prior to the social-economic transformation, the Hungarian higher education was characterized
by special elite education. Only 10-15% of students with GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary
Education) were admitted to the universities or colleges. Due to the stricter selection system the eminence
was sort of precondition of continuing the studies at higher levels. At the same time the students’ scientific
activity was introduced more than sixty years ago, and developed at higher educational institutions as a
further screen: the ambitious students could take part in special activities in addition to their compulsory
curriculum studies, they could carry out research works independently or within the frame of teamwork.
Following the post-socialist transition the number of students in higher education swelled significantly:
almost 50% of high school graduate students were admitted to universities or colleges. The increased
number of students in higher education and the three-cycle transformation of training also urged the
reconstruction of the framework of former talent management.
In the paper we give a short outlook of the popular forms of talent management, their experimental
results, as well as the related problems. We examine the questions that need to be answered in the
transformed higher education. These could lead back to the problems induced by the Bologna-system
(multi-cycle training). They are the followings: problems of selection of talents in the shortened training
time, respectively the shortened time available for those students’ research works which lasted for several
years previously, problems of changing tutorial and student scales of values and attitudes, questions of
requirements of continuity in the training chain of bachelor – master – PhD level etc.
The situation of the students’ scientific research work– a unique movement in Europe – was the focus of
the study, furthermore its results and connection with the third level (Ph.D.) of the Bologna-system higher
education.
Key words: competition, eminence, mass education, students’ scientific activity.