What Do University Students Think About The Roles Of Intellectuals? Empirical Findings of a Hungarian Analysis

Abstract

There is a debate in the field of social sciences about the role of intellectuals. More possible directions can be distinguished: professional, intelligentsia and public intellectual. These types have got their own historical, geographical and political backgrounds but if we regard universities as places in which intellectuals are trained we have to highlight the importance of higher education at the same time. Despite the wide theoretical background empirical findings have narrowly been known. In this paper quantitative method was used and we try to analyze what university students think about the role components of intellectuals. Our database came from 2017 from a nationwide Hungarian student analysis (N=1502). We created our own made question-block with 18 items and undergraduates had to scale these items which belong to the role components of intellectuals. We can state that students have got a mixed pattern in the analyzed field. The components of professional role are strong – and this fits into the national educational policies – but other elements are significant too. The features of classical intellectual habitus are strong as well (general knowledge, white collar work etc.), but the components of public intellectuals and macro-level aims have less importance.