Customer Service Load in Hungarian Higher Education: What We Learned From 37 Institutions
Daskalos Consulting's own research on where student administration bottlenecks occur in Hungarian higher education today.
The customer-service load in Hungarian higher education is concentrated overwhelmingly on traditional channels (email: 89.2%, in-person reception: 75.7%, phone: 56.8%), requires multiple exchanges in nearly two-thirds of cases (64.9%), and is typically tied to peak periods. Professionals are open to AI-based solutions, but only if they are accurate and source-cited. They primarily expect these solutions to save time, not money. This is the main finding of our own research, conducted over nearly eight months among staff responsible for student administration at 37 Hungarian higher education institutions. Below, we present the detailed data.
Which channel carries the heaviest load?
We asked respondents to identify which administrative channels are most overloaded for them.
| Channel | Share of respondents marking it as most overloaded |
|---|---|
| 89.2% | |
| In-person service | 75.7% |
| Phone | 56.8% |
| Web chat messages | 2.7% |
| Social media messages | 2.7% |
The overwhelming majority of the load is concentrated on traditional, synchronous or semi-synchronous channels, while web chat and social media essentially do not appear as overloaded channels based on the responses.
How much time does a single question take?
We examined three, interrelated metrics.
Time to first response to an incoming student email:
| Response time | Share of respondents |
|---|---|
| < 3 hours | 48.6% |
| 3–6 hours | 13.5% |
| 6–24 hours | 24.3% |
| 1–3 days | 13.5% |
For 37.8% of respondents, the first response takes more than 6 hours, in many cases, days.
Share of cases closed after the first exchange:
| Closure rate | Share of respondents |
|---|---|
| > 80% | 35.1% |
| 61–80% | 18.9% |
| 41–60% | 18.9% |
| 20–40% | 16.2% |
| < 20% | 10.8% |
For 64.9% of respondents, a significant share of cases does not close with the first response. Further correspondence, and therefore further working time, is required.
Actual time to answer an email, meaning the respondent's actual working time to close the case:
| Time required | Share |
|---|---|
| 0–5 minutes (routine) | 27.0% |
| 6–10 minutes (simple) | 37.8% |
| 11–20 minutes (medium) | 32.4% |
| 21–40 minutes (complex) | 2.7% |
Based on the weighted average of the three main categories, handling an average inquiry takes about 9 minutes.
When is the pressure greatest?
Regarding peak periods, respondents identified the following as the most heavily loaded:
- Course registration: 83.8%
- Enrollment: 78.4%
- Exam period: 73.0%
- Admissions, including the summer score-threshold period: 62.2%
- Scholarships/deadlines: 18.9%
- Dormitory applications: 8.1%
An annual average load figure on its own significantly underestimates the real, peak-period pressure.
How useful do they consider an AI assistant, and what are they worried about?
Ratings of AI assistant usefulness (on a 1–5 scale) were more positive than skeptical: 46% of respondents (17 people) gave a rating of 4 or 5, while only 2 people (5.4%) were clearly dismissive.
At the same time, concerns about adoption are also clearly outlined.
| Concern | Share |
|---|---|
| Accuracy of responses | 83.8% |
| Data protection / GDPR | 59.5% |
| Integration into daily work | 27.0% |
| IT integration burden | 18.9% |
| Team acceptance | 16.2% |
| No particular concern | 8.1% |
Response accuracy and data protection stand out far above the other concerns. These are precisely the two principles around which we built Emily's design: every answer comes with source citations, and data handling remains GDPR-compliant throughout, in a data-processor role.
What motivates adoption?
We also asked what would be the most important consideration when adopting an AI-based customer service assistant.
| Consideration | Share |
|---|---|
| Achieving time savings | 83.8% |
| Automation and digitization of processes | 62.2% |
| System integration, e.g. with Neptun | 18.9% |
| Providing management information | 13.5% |
| Achieving revenue growth | 5.4% |
| Achieving cost savings | 5.4% |
The overwhelming majority of Hungarian higher education professionals consider time savings and the digitization of processes to be the primary consideration. Revenue- and cost-side considerations rank far lower in the responses.
Who responded, and what do they work with day to day?
The composition of the 37 respondents: 62% (23 people) work at the faculty level in student administration, 38% (14 people) in a central organizational unit. Regarding the student population served, 49% work with both Hungarian and international student segments, 43% exclusively with Hungarian students, and 8% exclusively with international students. The size of respondents' organizational units is typically small-to-medium: 51% belong to a 1,000–5,000-person unit, 30% to a unit under 1,000, 14% to a 5,000–10,000-person unit, and only 5% (2 people) work in a unit larger than 10,000.
To answer student questions, respondents search most frequently in the following document types: PDF (75.7%), Word (59.5%), web pages (45.9%), Excel (40.5%), images or scanned documents (24.3%). Among the systems used daily, Neptun is nearly universal (100%), email client use is also nearly complete (91.9%). SharePoint/OneDrive (45.9%) and Google Drive (27.0%) show a more mixed picture, and virtually no one uses a dedicated helpdesk or ticketing system (2.7%).
Asked how much of a central, well-usable knowledge base exists for administrative processes (on a 1–5 scale, where 5 means fully exists), responses were widely scattered, with a clear peak in the middle: most respondents (12 people, 32.4%) chose the midpoint of the scale, while the two extreme values each received 6 people (16.2%–16.2%). There is no uniform industry practice: the level of knowledge-base development varies widely from institution to institution.
About the research
This finding led us to develop Emily, an AI assistant tailored to Hungarian higher education. If you would like to learn about the full methodology, the raw data, or further detailed analyses, feel free to reach out to us.
Daskalos Consulting's national survey, based on responses from staff at 37 Hungarian higher education institutions, conducted over 2025–2026, over a period of nearly eight months. The full methodology and further analyses are available upon request.