One of the central dynamics of socialist systems has been the state bureaucracy's control over allocation and a resulting culture of subordination. Ministry officials would not allow the FTT to function as the principal advisory body for higher education on issues of integration or any other major policy arena. Boards are a foray into this intermediate space and it has been a difficult pioneering venture in terms of legitimacy and power. Clearly integration and other elements of reform have encountered the classic dynamics of interest group behavior found in all societies. Integration leaders come from regional universities eager to increase their influence and resources.
Resistance comes from the larger and more powerful Budapest universities protecting their status.
After the euphoria of 1989, the realities of significant reform in higher education in Hungary have become apparent as some groups resist change and seek to protect perceived interests and beliefs. However, the legacies of socialist systems constitute deeply rooted ways of thinking and acting that lie not in the particular political system but in the social and economic structures upon which these societies were built. Many involved in higher education reform in Hungary have concluded that change will take a generation or two.