The Senate has supported the transformation of the University’s organisational structure

The Senate supported the amendment of the Organisational and Operational Procedures (OOP), and took decisions on new master and specialist postgraduate programmes, the changes in the admission requirements to master programmes and the appointment of a research professor. The first item on the agenda was Corvinus’ new organisational structure. Bruno van Pottelsberghe presented the main OOP amendments matching the renewed strategic ambitions. 

New governance structure 

Instead of the previous tripartite governance structure, the University shall be headed by the Rector. As a first step, the decision-making body assisting the Rector should be established: the previous Presidential Committee will now be replaced by the Executive Committee (EXCO) consisting of seven members, senior executives of the University representing the academic and service area in equal numbers.  In addition to the Rector, who is the number one leader of both the academic and the operational areas, the three Vice-Rectors who supervise the academic area and the three Chief Officers who oversee the operational and service areas will be involved in the Committee’s work.   

The Rector’s aim is for the EXCO to work as a collegiate team that fosters cooperation and mutual respect between academic and operational areas. The Rector also stressed the importance of ensuring that decisions taken jointly are effectively communicated by all executives to the professional areas under their control. 

Six senior executive positions, association of functions 

Bruno van Pottelsberghe pointed out that in the previous organisational structure, certain professional functions and objectives were fragmented under different management areas. These are now being integrated to ensure a more streamlined operation in line with the strategy. In the new governance structure, the strategic areas are represented by six senior executives.  

Three Vice-Rectors will manage the academic area: while the Vice-Rector for Academic Programmes is responsible for the education portfolio, the Vice-Rector for Faculty and Research is responsible for supporting academic career paths and research. New at Corvinus, but a standard position in international higher education, the Vice-Rector for Student Affairs will bring together the responsibilities for supporting student welfare, experience and journey, the priority role of this area being underlined by the top academic position.  

Three Chief Officers will lead the operational and service areas: the Chief Operating Officer in charge of the operational (financial, legal, procurement, operations, IT) functioning of the University; the Chief People and Culture Officer in charge of inclusive organisational culture, staff satisfaction, fair and equal treatment; and the Chief Communications Officer, who will have to make significant progress in international branding and student recruitment, in addition to the inward-facing communication in the domestic market, handled successfully so far. The grouping of professional tasks and organisational units associated with the above six strategic areas has been defined on the basis of experience and proposals that have been made, in order to achieve the strategic objectives.  

Transversal themes and internationalisation in all professional fields 

Bruno van Pottelsberghe also highlighted other important changes. The two new deans, responsible for sustainability and artificial intelligence, will be tasked with involving the whole organisation and all professional fields in these two challenging topics, and for encouraging transformation and the necessary steps. 

The current organisational structure of the international field is also changing, because to be a truly international institution, internationalisation needs to be present in all professional groups of the university, not just in a single organisational unit. The Rector stressed that we do not need to think locally or internationally, we are simply international. The strategic area covers quality development tasks related to accreditations and rankings, as the committed active participation of all EXCO members and the professional areas they represent is essential for successful preparation. The Director of International Alliances will play an important role in building international institutional relations and double-degree programmes. 

Selection of the senior executives 

In response to a question from the Senate, Bruno van Pottelsberghe said that for the six EXCO positions, candidates will be selected according to the university’s recruitment strategy. As for the positions representing the academic area, whereas the Senate will give its opinion, appointment will be subject to the approval of the Maintainer.  

Márton Barta, Head of Strategy, complementing the Rector’s summary, indicated that as a result of the amendment to the OOP, the Senate will be enlarged by two elected members, and the university management will review the structure of the various committees and propose changes. 

The representative of the Students’ Union welcomed the proposed ambitious new organisational structure, especially the representation of student affairs at the level of Vice-Rector, and suggested the inclusion of an additional student representative in the Senate in connection with the expansion of the Senate. 

The Senate supported the amendment of the Organisational and Operational Procedures, the final decision is to be adopted by the Board of Trustees of the Maintainer.  

The Senate discussed the following other items.  

Amendment of the Admission Regulation (Parts 1. and 8. of the Student Requirements): new admission requirements for master-level study programmes and the proposed programme costs for the 2025/2026 year 

The revision and amendments of the Admission Regulation were necessitated by the practical experience gained from the admission system, feedback from the Tempus Foundation and the launch of new master study programmes. The changes concern the clarification of the admission requirements for master study programmes with daytime delivery, the definition of the admission requirements for the new master-level study programmes. The admission requirement for master-level study programmes will be an institutional written examination offered by the university (supplemented by an oral examination for some study programmes), which may be offset by international tests (GMAT FE, GMAT, NMAT and GRE) or by a tertiary diploma graded at least good/B (ECTS), institutionally accredited by an international organisation (AACSB or EQUIS accredited or issued by a CEMS member higher education institution). The Senate supported the proposed modifications. 

In the Doctoral (PhD) Regulation (Part 8 of the Student Requirements), the wording needed to be clarified, and to comply with statutory regulations, the evaluation of the doctoral degree must be provided in numerical form in addition to the existing textual evaluation. The Senate supported the proposed modifications. 

The programme costs for the 2025/2026 academic year were fixed, most of them remaining unchanged. The Senate supported the proposal, which will be submitted to the Maintainer for approval. 

Establishing and launching new master and specialist postgraduate study programmes 

In line with the strategic orientations set out in the Institutional Development Plan, the transformation of the master programme portfolio has started. In the first phase, a group of new master study programmes was created in the spring, in line with the concept of a dynamic system of two-year and one-year master study programmes building on each other. The development of three new one-year study programmes linked to the existing Public Policy and Management study programme was only completed by the end of the summer. The establishment of these three study programmes has just been submitted to the Senate: Climate Policy and Regional Development; Global Development Policy; Health Economic Evaluation. Two new ESG programmes (ESG Management and ESG Economics) are planned to be added to the range of specialist postgraduate programmes. The Senate supported the proposals to establish and launch the study programmes. 

Proposal for the programmes to be offered under the 2025A (2025/2026 academic year) admission procedure and the maximum numbers of students  

Essentially the same portfolio of bachelor and master study programmes will be announced. The only change is that the bachelor study programme in Communication and Media Studies will be launched in English only.  

As far as master study programmes are concerned, two newly developed two-year programmes will be announced: General Management, and Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Four new one-year programmes will be announced: Sustainable Management & Entrepreneurship and Diversity & Inclusion will be added to the two-year programmes above. The third programme (Social Data Science) would run as a stand-alone one-year programme for the time being. The fourth one-year study programme is the International MBA programme. 

Based on the experience of previous years, due to the low number of applicants for admission, this year the master programmes in Sociology; Regional and Environmental Economics; Health Policy, Planning and Financing; and Community Governance will not be launched. 

For the 2025 admission procedure, the same portfolio of specialist postgraduate programmes will be announced. 

The Senate agreed with the proposal, which requires the approval of the Maintainer. 

Applications for Professorship 

In agreement with the proposal of the Academic Tenure and Promotion Committee, the Senate supported the appointment of Viktor Dörfler as Research Professor at the Institute of Strategy and Management. Dr Dörfler is Professor of AI Strategy at the Department of Management at the University of Strathclyde Business School (Glasgow, UK). The Senate supported the candidate’s appointment. 

In the absence of the minimum criteria set by the MAB (Hungarian Accreditation Committee), the Senate did not support the appointment as full professor of Petrus Hendrik Potgieter, a professor at the University of Pretoria, in agreement with the opinion of the Academic Tenure and Promotion Committee.  

Admission and enrolment: review of three-year trends and analysis of the 2024A admission procedure 

Senators were shown the analysis, which provides insights into the number of students admitted in the 2024A admission procedure, enrolment numbers and ratios by academic level, field of study, language and form of funding, and plotted as a three-year trend. The Senate agreed to submit the report to the Maintainer. 

In addition to the agenda, the Senate received information on two topics. The Academic Tenure and Promotion Committee supported the appointments of Wendelin Küpers and Dmitry Kucherov as Associate Professors in the Institute of Strategy and Management, and Márton Barta, Head of Strategy, briefly presented the university-wide goals that had been defined for the 2024/2025 academic year, which will be underpinned by the organisational and individual-level goals to be set in the coming weeks. He highlighted the drive to boost the number of international students, the increase in international research funding, and indicated that the three assessment dimensions of MyView will be examined separately for the evaluation of teaching excellence.