Senate: new specialisations approved for the reformed social sciences Bachelor programmes

At the final Senate meeting of the second semester of the 2023/2024 academic year, which was held on 16 July, a vote was first taken on the amendment of the Regulation on Demonstrators. Ágnes Zsóka, Vice Rector for Academic Development said that a different evaluation period will be introduced for both the autumn and spring semesters to allow applications for first year students: for the autumn semester, applications will be evaluated within 5 working days after the last day of the examination period, and for the spring semester, applications will be evaluated within 15 working days after the last day of the examination period. Also, the term “teaching assistant” will be used in the English language version instead of “demonstrator”, in accordance with international practice. All amendments were unanimously approved. 

The second item on the agenda concerned the renewal of three elements of the social sciences undergraduate portfolio.  Richárd Szántó, Dean for Undergraduate Programmes said that the final stage of the portfolio revamp has been reached with the development of the planned new specialisations, and about a quarter of the students are expected to take the renewed courses from autumn 2025. In addition to the fewer but more comprehensive and integrative undergraduate courses, the University will offer students a number of specialisations in the final years of their studies, hopefully resulting in students moving on to the related master’s degree programmes.   Some of the specialisations will be generally available, such as Global Social Challenges, which will be accessible to all social science majors. As the Dean pointed out, two Hungarian language specialisations (Public Communications, Hungarian Political System) have been developed within the essentially English language portfolio, so that this knowledge, which is relevant in the domestic context, will also be available to students.  The senators unanimously approved the renewal of the undergraduate programmes. 

The Senate then discussed some personnel matters. 

First, the composition of the Academic Career Committee (ACC) was discussed: as some of the mandates had expired, extensions as well as the appointment of new members became necessary.  The senators unanimously approved the extension of the mandate of Professor Attila Tasnádi (Institute of Data Analytics and Information Systems) and the appointment of Réka Benczes (Institute of Marketing and Communication Sciences) as an internal member. Furthermore, the extension of the external membership of Prof. Christopher Ball (Quinnipiac University) and the appointment of two new external members, Prof. Timothy Havens (University of Iowa) and Prof. Karin Hoisl (University of Mannheim, Copenhagen Business School) were unanimously approved. The appointments are for a period of 1 year, starting from 1 August 2024 until 31 July 2025.  

The Senate unanimously proposed the professorial appointment of Antal Jakovac (Institute of Data Analytics and Information Systems). He has more than 20 years of teaching experience, and his research interests include artificial intelligence, data science, modelling and, more recently, representation learning.  

The appointment of two new research professors was also approved by unanimous consent: Amitabh Anand, professor of Excelia Business School, LA Rochelle; and senior research fellow of CIAS from autumn 2023, with four Q1 publications released as a result. His research interests include management, organizational behaviour, human resource management and business development. Balázs Lengyel is an associate professor at Corvinus University of Budapest, an internationally renowned expert on spatial social networks, founder of the ANET Lab, one of the most successful and internationally recognised social science research labs in Hungary, and a founding member of the CIAS NETI Laboratory; he is involved in the doctoral programmes and the MA development process.  

Following the resignation of Gábor Kardos, a new external member to the University Doctoral Council, István Tarrósy, Professor of PTE was proposed for the position and unanimously approved by the Senate.  

The last item on the agenda concerned the application of Corvinus to join QTEM (Quantitative Techniques for Economics & Management Masters Network). In his presentation, Dániel Havran, Dean for Graduate Programmes pointed out that QTEM offers a unique opportunity for students of quantitative economics and economic studies (e.g. finance, economic science, computer science, data analysis and quantitative management). The students would be able to study at QTEM member universities for one or two semesters, participate in international data analytics team competitions and spend six months of internship with the specialized corporate partners of the QTEM network. The QTEM network consisting of 37 university and corporate partners was co-founded in 2012 by Bruno van Pottelsberghe, future Rector of Corvinus, who is still Chairman of the QTEM Board. Dániel Havran emphasized that, in addition to the benefits of joining, it should also be examined whether participation could in any way affect the current partners of Corvinus University, referring to the global professional community of CEMS with a similar profile, of which Corvinus has been a committed and active member. Some of the senators urged caution, making the unanimous approval of potential application conditional on the University management’s examination of the perception of QTEM membership among current international partners and consultation with them, as appropriate. The aim is to ensure that no new membership or expansion of its international network jeopardise the past achievements and values of the University. 

Following the agenda, at the end of the meeting, Márton Barta, Head of Strategy, gave a short summary of the first half-year results of the actions included in the Institutional Development Plan and the related functional strategies. He highlighted some of the key achievements: the achievement of eligibility for EQUIS re-accreditation, the renewal of the Master’s portfolio, the steady increase in research output (although our failure to participate in Horizon grants remains a serious risk), and the development of a system of effective, revenue-generating strategic corporate partnerships in the area of corporate relations. Márton Barta also believes it is important that the University is now systematically turning its attention to sustainability issues, as shown by the growing number of projects.