Abstract
The study analyzes the history of a regional higher education initiative – the Orosháza campus – within the theoretical framework of social innovation. It is based on the assumption that social innovations are not universally replicable models but context-embedded phenomena shaped by specific historical and political-economic conditions. The paper demonstrates how the campus responded to human resource shortages in the South Békés region, contributed to strengthening teacher education, and evolved into a regional knowledge hub and network organizer. Particular emphasis is placed on the political economy of social innovation, highlighting how funding mechanisms, state regulation, and ownership structures fundamentally influence the sustainability of such initiatives. The case suggests that regional higher education innovations can be locally successful while remaining structurally vulnerable at the macro level, thus serving as institutional imprints of a given political and historical era.
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