BGA | BUSINESS IMPACT
B udapest’s Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) is steeped in history. Originally founded in 1635 in Nagyszombat (today, Trnava in Slovakia) it moved to Buda in 1777 (the historic capital of the Kingdom of Hungary which, since 1873, comprises the western part of today’s capital, Budapest). In 1950, it acquired its current name, in homage to the renowned physicist and faculty member, Loránd Eötvös. Today, ELTE counts four Nobel Prize laureates among its teachers and alumni, and the number of students is roughly 33,000. ‘Business education is very popular among students, and is probably
How healthy is the current market for business education in your country, and the surrounding region, and what are the main challenges? The number of international students in the region is increasing rapidly, and in Hungary, state- funded scholarships for students from developing countries also help with the recruitment of young talent. Naturally, recent events have upset the current trends. With an influx of refugee students from Ukraine, many of whom come from Africa, ELTE is able to provide for their continuing education during the crisis. At the national level, business education is very popular among students, and is probably the field with the highest number of competitors: more than 30 universities offer such education, and students themselves help in ranking these institutions through their choices. We have the highest number of postgraduate (and MBA) applications and students, and we are in the top two for undergraduate excellence, with an increase of more than 60% in the number of applicants who ranked ELTE as their first choice for next year. This is a huge success, given that the overall number of higher education applicants has decreased this year. Has the Covid-19 pandemic influenced your School’s long-term strategy? If so, how? We had used certain IT tools to support our master’s students’ learning experience even before the pandemic started in 2020, so it did not hit us dramatically. The new external circumstances forced us to extend the use of available systems to bachelor’s-level programmes and to widen the scope of IT solutions in teaching.
the field with the highest number of competitors’
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The establishment of its Institute of Business Economics (ELTE IBE) and the transition, last year, into the Faculty of Economics – ELTE’s ninth faculty (ELTE FE) – are more recent developments, born out of the rapid growth of students studying economics and business at the university. Business Impact talked to faculty members, Gabor Zemplen and Judit Fortvingler, to find out more about this rising level of interest and gain insights into ELTE Faculty of Economics’ pedagogical approach and outlook.
After a smooth transition to an online environment in spring 2020, the School’s
management started to consider the future: after overcoming Covid-19, should the faculty return to ‘traditional’ teaching tools, or should it implement a combination of pre-Covid and pandemic tools? Our approach differentiates us from other leading Hungarian universities and is twofold. On the one hand, we have realised that certain tasks (for example, consultations, the oral entrance exam at master’s level, and project work presentations) could be implemented more efficiently online. In addition, our students – especially master’s students who work [in conjunction with their studies] – favour this channel
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