1,500 students received their diplomas at our July graduation ceremonies

At the 12 graduation ceremonies held on 20-23 July, Corvinus students graduating in the spring semester 2020/2021 received their diplomas.

The 1,500 Hungarian and international students were welcomed by the University’s leaders in the main lecture hall of Building C, and their relatives were able to follow the ceremonies on a projector in the lecture hall on the ground floor.

Vice- Rector for Academic Workshops, László Csicsmann, emphasised in his welcome speech that Corvinus degrees are valued not only by the labour market but also by the current developments in the world.

We are living in an era of global change that is also fundamentally affecting the European continent. Europe, which after the Second World War was accustomed to the achievements, stability and material development and prosperity of Western civilisation, is facing various adverse challenges.

In the emerging multipolar international order, knowledge is an enormous responsibility for all, the Vice-Rector stressed. As a guide, he advised students to always combine knowledge with critical thinking and humility, because knowledge is always limited and can never be absolute. He quoted the American writer Frank Herbert:

It is possible to know so much about a subject that you become totally ignorant.

Dean for Executive and Postgraduate Specialisation Programmes, Péter Fehér, told the audience that knowledge acquired in difficult circumstances such as the present ones pays off significantly. The experience of the previous financial crisis shows that companies and individuals who invested in training have become more successful since the crisis has passed. The Dean recalled the great competition between Nicolas Tesla and Thomas Edison, which still defines industrial development, and reminded the audience that

success is not only about creativity, good ideas and discoveries, but also about bringing them to market, especially in a period of crisis or afterwards.

According to Peter Fehér, Corvinus has also prepared recent graduates for market thinking, and the labour market will appreciate this.

Dean of Master’s Programmes, Helga Habis, advised the graduating students to take with them the experience of community and team beyond the knowledge they gained at Corvinus, and to nurture and protect these relationships, because this sense of belonging has a huge value in the world today:

You have become part of a special community, whose members can find each other anywhere in the world.

Helga Habis quoted Albert-László Barabási, who said that achievement is about the individual, but success is about the community, because the latter is the recognition we receive from the community to which we belong.

According to Dean of Bachelor’s Programmes Richárd Szántó, the graduates will remember years from now the radical changes that took place during their university years. The Corvinus University of Budapest began its transformation before their eyes, changing its organisational structure, its maintainer, its logo, its courses of study, and bringing in completely new ones. The new graduates have been part of this major change and, according to the Dean:

“I am convinced that you will also experience first-hand how the renewal of the University will further enhance the value of your degree.

He concluded by suggesting to the students that if they wished to deepen or refresh their knowledge, or even to explore new waters, Corvinus would welcome them back for other programmes, master’s courses, postgraduate courses or doctoral studies.

Vice-Rector for International Affairs Zoltán Szántó began his speech by emphasising that on this special day it is important to thank parents and family: students for the support they have received, and the University for the trust they have placed in it. The Vice-Rector wished the new graduates to keep up their work ethic and to have the imagination to develop new plans and set new goals. Zoltán Szántó stressed that they should not just look for a job, but a vocation. He quoted an old saying:

Always see your work as if you were going to live forever, and always leave it as if you were going to die immediately.

On behalf of the Student Union Dorina Molnár bid farewell to the graduating students, saying that in years to come most of them will not remember the struggles, the many hours and exams, but

but rather the many laughs, drinking tea in the canteen, student organisation, the special scientific circles, the friends from freshers’ camp or the 8 a.m. lectures where we arrived with coffee in hand.

The President of the Student Union advised the students to keep the personal and professional connections they made here, because they will keep Corvinus in them long after graduation.

Corvinus leaders and faculty also sent a video message of farewell to our 2021 graduates: Good wishes to our 2021 graduates