This study aims to present the path leading to the establishment of independent Hungarian-language
higher education in Transcarpathia. Transcarpathia, as a region and administrative
unit, was established within the territory of the Czechoslovak Republic following
World War I. After World War II, the region became part of Soviet Ukraine. The first
higher education institution in Transcarpathia was the Uzhhorod State University,
established by the Soviet regime in 1945. In 1963, a Hungarian department was established
at the university, followed by the Department of Hungarian Philology two years later.
The establishment of the Hungarian college of Higher Education in Berehove, which
currently operates as the only independent Hungarian-language higher education institution
in Transcarpathia, established the power shifts following Ukraine declares its independence
and the period of higher education expansion. Local advocacy organizations and the
Hungarian government played a decisive role in the establishment of the Ferenc Rakoczi
II Transcarpathian Hungarian College of Higher Education, ensuring the supply of teachers
for Hungarian-language schools in Transcarpathia.
