In the literature on higher education, civic involvement is discussed in connection with civic education or as a protective factor against attrition. In a series of surveys, we have followed higher education students' volunteering at several higher education institutions of Central and Eastern Europe since 2005. Based on Wilson (2000), we distinguish between formal volunteering and volunteer work which does not require organizational membership. Among young people, volunteer work is rather a program-centered, personally motivated, and individual activity (Inglehart 2003). In this study, however, we also examine students' voluntary group membership, which could provide a potential framework for volunteer work. Through a stepwise linear regression model, we analyze the effect of volunteering and voluntary group membership on students' higher education persistence. The analysis is carried out on data from the PERSIST 2019 survey (N = 2199). We find that persistent academic progress is more common among women, individually well-off students from objectively less affluent families, those who pray regularly, those who have a close relationship with their parents, professors, and peers, and those have done volunteer work during their higher education studies.

The phenomenon of the aging of societies is now well-known, demonstrating its demographic, economic and social impact in many countries around the world. The increase in average life expectancy at birth and the low number of children have naturally triggered the emergence of declining, aging societies. All this has led to a number of tasks for policy makers, domestic and international organizations, primarily to promote active, healthy aging. This article describes some of the results of an empirical study of 167 people conducted jointly with St. Luke’s Greek Catholic Charity in the winter of 2019 in order to assess the situation and needs of the elderly. This article presents the results of our study, which focuses on community activities, leisure, and social relationships. During our analytical work, we found that those living in residential care homes are more open to community-based activities to maintain physical and mental activity.

Transnational mobility has not only become an integral part of the successful, internatonally driven career path of academics, but is emerging to a great extent as a major performance requirement. Similarly to academic careers in general, international mobility of researchers is also a gendered process to a great extent. This paper aims to assess the most important characteristics of Hungarian researchers working abroad with special attention put on the similarities and differences identified in the career path of female and male researchers. With an online self-administered questionnaire distributed through a snowball sampling methodologyamong Hungarian PhD-holders working abroad for more than one year, we investigated the motivation for international mobility, the career path, work contracts, work-life balance, future career plans and the perception of the value of the PhD degree. Our key findings indicate that male researchers’s labour market position is more advantageous abroad than female researchers’ and overall they are more convinved of the positive value of their PhD degree, while female academics were statisfied, but at a more moderate level.

The Orange Revolution and the Euromaidan protests led to a significant increase in civic engagement among the Ukrainian population. After the turn of the millennium, civic participation among the Hungarian minority in Transcarpathia also expanded. During the Russo-Ukrainian war in 2022, young people from Transcarpathia played an important role as volunteers in helping refugees in Transcarpathia, on the Ukrainian–Hungarian border, and in Hungary. In our exploratory study, we conducted semi-structured interviews with young volunteers from Transcarpathia. In the thematic analysis, we explored the interviewees’ pre-war volunteer experience, their voluntary activities during the war, their motivations for volunteering, and finally, the potential returns to volunteering. The interviews were also used to carry out type analysis, delimiting three volunteer types based on motivations and frequency of volunteering. According to our most important result, despite the social tensions caused by the war, young volunteers in Transcarpathia show strong solidarity with Ukrainian refugees from central regions, and the activity has generally increased volunteers’ well-being. Another important implication could be that the group of interviewees who only started volunteering during the war may be open to helping others in the future, which could further spread the culture of volunteering in the region.

Introduction. Under the influence of increased individual and social responsibility, as well as global and local challenges, volunteering as a responsible social role and a form of active social activity began to develop rapidly in Ukraine. During the Russian-Ukrainian war of 2022, Transcarpathian youth played a major role as volunteers, helping refugees in Transcarpathia, on the Ukrainian-Hungarian border, and in Hungary. Purpose. The authors of the article have investigated the young volunteers’ experience before the war, the characteristics of their volunteer activities during the war, and their motivation for the volunteer activity in order to find out the possible positive outcome of their activities. Methods. In the research, the authors have carried out the theme analysis by conducting semi-structured interviews with young volunteers from Transcarpathia. In addition to the theme analysis along the interviews, they also prepared a type-analysis and differentiated between three volunteer-types (regular volunteers with altruistic motivations, regular volunteers with mixed motivations, and occasional volunteers with mixed motivations). Results. The most important result of the research is that young volunteers from Transcarpathia are characterized by strong solidarity for the Ukrainian refugees despite the social tension arising as a result of the war. Another important finding may be that the group of respondents who only started to volunteer during the war might be open to helping others also in the future, and as a result, the culture of volunteering may spread even more in the examined area. Conclusion. Despite all the difficulties and social tensions caused by the war, Transcarpathian young people actively participated in voluntary work and successfully completed the tasks assigned to them.