According to the plans, Corvinus students and teachers will be able to take possession of the university's new campus on Ménesi Road from next fall, announced Márton Barta, the Head of Strategy of the Corvinus University of Budapest, on 9 December. The institution is undergoing large-scale digital, infrastructural and educational development, as part of which a new dormitory will open its doors and the Neptun Education System will also be modernised.

"Corvinus is constantly striving to maintain its leading role in Hungarian higher education, and to this end, it has embarked on a comprehensive digital, infrastructural and educational modernisation," said Márton Barta at the press conference where the design renders for the university's new campus on Ménesi Road were presented.

Visuals of the new campus of the Corvinus University of Budapest on Ménesi Road (Photo: MTI/Corvinus University of Budapest)

The strategic leader of the university emphasised that 600-700 students will be able to work on the campus at the same time, and all educational and community spaces will serve creative cooperation. 

"We want to create a multifunctional educational, innovation and community centre in which, in addition to the educational buildings, there will also be a number of sports and community spaces, as well as an 11,000 square metre park and a 180-bed dormitory," Márton Barta explained the details, adding: they are proud of it, that the Ménesi Road institution, which can be taken into possession from the next academic year, meets the latest energy efficiency and sustainability criteria.

The university would also launch a social device rental program on campus so that disadvantaged students can also get access to the devices needed for distance learning, such as tablets, wireless headsets or web cameras, he indicated.

Márton Barta explained that the total cost of the construction, which began in the fall of 2021, is expected to be around net 16 billion HUF, of which 12 billion HUF will be state aid, and another gross 650 million HUF will be EU funds, the remaining amount will be financed by the Maecenas Univesitatis Corvini Foundation, which manages the development. The Head of Strategy reminded that in 2019, Corvinus was the first of the Hungarian higher education institutions to be maintained by a foundation, and the current developments are also the results of this transformation.

 

According to the plans, students and teachers will be able to take possession of the new campus from autumn 2023, design render (Photo: MTI/Corvinus University of Budapest)

"The competition for students and teachers in higher education is constantly increasing, so universities must become institutions that breathe with the social and economic environment. This is best served by the foundation form," he said, mentioning that since the transformation, Corvinus's research effectiveness has tripled, the number of foreign lecturers has increased significantly, they have received prestigious international accreditation and significant salary improvements have been implemented, and from next September, two new English-language courses will be added to the training palette.

"Our goal is for Corvinus to be the best economic and social science university in Central Europe," underlined Márton Barta.

The press conference also reported on the ongoing digital developments at the university, part of which is being implemented from the one-and-a-half billion HUF grant received for this purpose from the Union's recovery fund. Regarding the details, Péter Major, Head of the Corvinus Student Services, said that they would like to be the first in Hungary to introduce online enrolment.

"Students and lecturers can be effective if they do not have to deal with the administration but can concentrate their resources on acquiring knowledge, teaching and research. This requires a smoothly functioning, customisable and system-oriented study administration, which is why we decided to further develop the Neptun Education System complex," said Péter Major.

He also touched on the fact that, in addition to introducing online enrolment, they also want to ensure that students can track their applications for internships or part-time courses abroad in a user-friendly way, as well as see up-to-date the processing of their scholarship applications and their legal remedy processes.

Source: MTI

Cover photo: The Corvinus University of Budapest will expand with a new campus next year (Photo: MTI/Corvinus University of Budapest)