It is needless to say that the education should be an asset rather being a liability for students and their family . When it comes to choosing a right university or a country , students always want to consider every aspect of education be it the country , the university ranking , the desired course ,the affordable tuition fees , scholarship options , living expenses , part time job opportunities , post studies settlement options and permanent residence options . It is also quite evident to compare different countries with different angles to prevent getting trapped by few over rated and highly advertised countries or universities . In addition to that , it is also a prominent point to compare the countries on the basis of global passport ranking index if the major goal is to settle down in a country rather than coming back to the home country post the completion of studies . Many students now a days possess strong dedication towards permanent residence options ( so called PR ) and wants to attain a second nationality or in case of India , drop Indian passport and acquire a passport Abroad for better future and visa free access to most of the developed economies of the world .
Adding to this , there are countries in the world whose citizens always receive a great amount of privilege when it comes to travel , business , studies or work opportunities in comparison to other nations due to the fact that their passports are considered to be one of the strongest passports in the word . They receive visa free access for tourism , study , business or job purposes in other countries and may apply directly for the residence permit or temporary residence post the arrival in that respective country . Their strong passport facilitates them with hassle free long and tedious visa process to enter in their desired country for studies , travel or work .
According to the https://www.passportindex.org/byRank.php , Hungary holds the 5th rank and Canada holds the 6th rank among the list of the most powerful passports in the year 2021 . This rank indicates that the citizens of Hungary and Canada have visa free access or visa on arrival facility in 149 and 148 countries respectively . I strongly believe that it is quite evident to compare these two countries in terms of education as they both fall under top 10 countries having the strongest passports in the world . Out of these two , Canada is quite well known and surprisingly Hungary might be a new name in the list of countries they consider for international education opportunities . Usually people recognize Hungary with its world famous capital city of Budapest which is a dream destination for any person who desires to visit or study in Europe – the wonder land .
There are few similarities between Hungary and Canada as a whole . Both the countries provide the PR options post the completion of studies . A student may apply for PR after successfully paying the tax for consecutive 3 years in Canada as well as Hungary . The PR would be valid for 5 years post which a student might apply for the option of citizenship . Now the question arises that is the PR facility in Canada over promoted by the Canadian government or Hungarian passport or education under rated by the Indian students . Let’s analyze it step by step .
As an international student , the major list of expenses cover the RENT ( EITHER IN STUDENT DORM OR FLAT ) , TRANSPORTATION , FOOD AND INTERNET . It is needless to say that there are range of other miscellaneous expenses a student has to encounter every month but let’s consider just the basis expenses to make a profound comparison between both the countries which every student has to bear and can not be neglected at any cost . Before bifurcating the expenses , let’s consider how much a student can earn in part time jobs in both the countries or how much monthly budget a student has to plan if receiving the sponsorship or parental financial support from India.
For keeping the comparison more focused and centralized , let’s consider only the desirable cities of both Canada and Hungary . Budapest is the most desirable and recommended city in Hungary and in Canada , we may not neglect the beautiful cities like Vancouver , Toronto , Montreal , Calgary and Ottawa . There are lot of other cities in Hungary which are home to famous international world ranking universities like Debrecen , Pecs , Sopron , Gyor etc but in case of Hungary , let’s take just Budapest and in Case of Canada , let’s take 5 desirable cities from different provinces .
The ground reports from both the countries prominently indicate that the legal permission to international students for part time jobs during the studies in both Canada and Hungary is 20 hours per week . After spending approx. 3 years in Hungary and 2 years as an international Indian student , I can say that it is also possible to work for more than 20 hours per week in Hungary by receiving salary in the form of cash, post the bracket of 20 hours per week . It is also possible to do the illegal part time jobs in Canada for more than 20 hours per week but considering the fact that most illegal part time jobs are provided by Indian restaurant owners or store owners , there have been numerous cases that the Indian students are scammed on a very large scale in Canada . Many students have reported that if they managed to work for 800 Canadian dollars , they were only paid 300-400 dollars on the name of not being able to be reported considering that both the parties were engaged in illegal activity . On the flip side , zero cases have been reported so far by international students in Hungary who have been scammed for doing part time jobs for more than 20 hours per week . However in both the countries , the nature of part time jobs is quite the same be it in restaurants , warehouses , call centers , receptions , super stores , university campuses or hostels .
On average , a student receives approx. 1500-1600 Hungarian forints/hour in part time jobs in Budapest but let us consider the common wage of 1500 ft/hour and duration of 20 hours rather than 40 hours per week which every student is capable of managing during the studies legally . It sums up to the total of 120,000 Hungarian forints / month equivalent to approx. INR 30,000 per month in part time jobs .
On the other hand , in Canada , the average wage per hour is fixed on approx. 14 Canadian dollars/hour . Though it varies from province to province but let’s consider 14 to keep our calculations precise and simple . It means a student is capable to earn approx. CAD 1120 equivalent to approx. INR 64,000 per month considering precise 20 hours/week of part time jobs .
We don’t promote illegal jobs for an international student so we are considering just the 20 hours / week of the part time jobs for students in Canada as well as Hungary . The figures clearly indicates that a student is capable to earn double in Canada as compared to Hungary in part time jobs during the studies but is it fair to end up the game here ? No because we are yet to compare the expenses now .
Considering the very basic expenses in both the countries which none of the students can neglect at any cost , it is provident that a student can earn approx. HUF 120,000 in part time jobs and has to spend HUF 84,600 per month in expensive capital city of Budapest and of course can save quite a decent amount for other miscellaneous expenses whereas in contrast , a student can earn approx. CAD 1120 in legal part time jobs per month and has to spend approx. CAD 1087 in Canada and is left with nothing or very little amount for other miscellaneous expenses.
Let’s consider the worst now ! There is higher no of chances that a student is not able to manage acquiring a decent part time job due to lack of linguistic abilities , academic qualification, experience , health issues or an unexpected pandemic like COVID -19 and he/she has to rely completely on parental support from India . I believe that in such worst situations , a middle class or upper middle class parent can manage the living expenses of Hungary where a student requires a nominal amount of approx. INR 30,000 whereas in case of Canada , a parent has to reserve approx. INR 65,000 monthly to support the basic living expenses of his/her child living in Canada . We all have seen how badly the pandemic has hit every person , family and gross income and taking a right decision of sending the child Abroad is a key to prevent unnecessary financial burden on the entire family when considering that both Canada and Hungary provides same post studies benefits of getting the PR and Hungary ranks better than Canada in the passport world ranking index .
On the top of that , the there are huge differences between the tuition fees per annum charged from international students in Hungarian and Canadian universities / colleges . In Hungary , quite a big number of Indian students study on the Stipendium hungaricum scholarship which waives off the tuition fees completely with other benefits on insurance, monthly contribution of living expenses and healthcare and fee paying students have to spend approx. between EUR 3000-7000 per annum. On the other hand , an international student has to spend approx. CAD 11000 -20000 per annum. Let’s keep the discussion of difference between Canadian and Hungarian education system for some other fine day !