ICEE-2006, Puerto Rico

3035

Peter Moson, Budapest University of Technology and Economics

Title

Specialities of Bologna type Education in Hungary

Abstract

In 2006 the Hungarian higher education will be fully converted according to the EU Bologna Declaration, transforming an educational model having German-Russian origin into a European one based on the experience of English-speaking world. In this process besides the common European elements (two main cycles, credit system etc.) and objectives (e.g. free mobility, cooperation in quality assurance, global competitiveness of European higher education) there is some important Hungarian characteristic in the realization depending on the country, organization of the transmission process, field of study etc. After the general presentation of the Hungarian understanding of the Bologna type engineering education, the paper mainly concentrates on the undergraduate level (where the accreditation procedure has been finished). The investigation is based on the experience of Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME, founded in 1782), one of the most important technical higher educational and research institution (several Nobel prize winners, ca. 25.000 students, training in English, French, German, Hungarian, Russian languages) in Central-Eastern Europe. The accepted engineering programs, their new goals (e.g. parallel development of basic scientific knowledge and practical experience) are presented. The differences between the training existing and under introduction, the risks are discussed. A comparison in case of basic sciences in engineering is given. The programs of courses in Mathematics, their acceptance, as an example, are considered in detail.

An important change of an educational model must be followed by the investigation of its impact on the international, university enterprise cooperation. Most of the foreign academic exchange, internship projects probably need some modification. The author is the vice-director of Institute of Mathematics, responsible for European practical placements of BME, a regular participant of ICEE(R) conferences. He believes that the paper by presenting the local situation, the understanding of equivalence can contribute to the creation of new partnerships.