More research, new developments – Management forum at the Corvinus

The management of the Corvinus University of Budapest held an online forum for the tutors of the institution on September 17, Thursday. The event held with the participation of almost 300 staff members of the University discussed the experiences about education during the epidemic situation, the current tasks related to structural changes and the strategic objectives for the future.

The management of the Corvinus University of Budapest held an online forum for the tutors of the institution on September 17, Thursday. The event held with the participation of almost 300 staff members of the University discussed the experiences about education during the epidemic situation, the current tasks related to structural changes and the strategic objectives for the future.

 
The objective is normal operation

András Lánczi, the rector of the Corvinus University of Budapest explained that the institution operated in the present epidemic situation, it would not close its gates, and they wished to perform their teaching activities, therefore all the measures served this purpose. At the moment, they attempt to maintain the normal operation of the University as efficiently as possible. The rector also added that the number of infected students or students under observation in quarantine had been continuously decreasing in the past one week.

As to the organisational renewal of the University, he said the management was following the strategy established jointly with the advisory board of the maintaining foundation. The next step will be the presentation of a proposal on the tutors’ career model to the senate, and the rector sees that concept as a real breakthrough in Hungarian higher education. The senate will soon have discussions on the setting up of a number of new committees and professors’ boards, the aim is to make sure that more efficient and more professional decisions are made during the transition, and tutors could feel that the University belongs to them at least as much as it belongs to the managers, the foundation and the students. In addition, Lánczi pointed out that in the course of the transformation, they wished to strengthen the existing culture, which focuses on the interests of students, and subordinates the objectives of the institution to that.

Value-creating processes will remain

The management forum introduced Ákos Domahidi, who came from the Andrássy University to take up the position of chancellor at Corvinus. In his previous job, it was also a foundation that exercised the owner’s rights but he remarked that the sizes of the two universities and volumes of related tasks cannot even be compared with each other. He thanked for the help he had received from his colleagues since he started to work here, and said he was devoting every minute of his time to learning the processes. Based on this experiences, development will be necessary at a number of areas, but he also emphasized that he would not like to change any well-functioning and value-creating processes.

Based on his first impressions, he found it important to point out that everybody will have to use a pragmatic approach during the transition so that they can get rid of the earlier hindering factors that were part of the operation under state maintenance. He mentioned the funds from international tenders as examples, he thinks they should be used in a more lifelike way in the future.

In the future, he requests the colleagues to be as open as he had experienced so far, and said that the proper distribution of information was very important, as that could be the basis of achieving common objectives.

More research, more publications

The president of the Corvinus University of Budapest, Anthony Radev identified the training and education of the economic and social elite of future Hungary as the key objective of the institution, and pointed out that the management of the University was continuously working on the improvement of student experience. He explained the concept of the institutional development plan which will be completed by the end of October.

As part of the plan, it was indicated that they would like to reduce the number of students per tutor from the present 20 to 16-17 in the future, and another objective is to make sure that more and more publications are produced by the tutors of the university. They would like the tutors of the university to publish three times more studies than the present 120-130 in a year, in prestigious scientific magazines of Q1 and Q2 categories, and they would facilitate that by involving extra funds.

The objective is to produce works that can be related to the profile of the Corvinus University later, and the scientific community would be able to identify the research areas in which the university is strong. The president emphasized that he expected relevant studies, as: “You cannot build reputation without relevance.”

He mentioned the Marketing Institution as a positive example, where no studies were produced at all eight years ago, but they have been working on this problem, and this year they are expected to publish already twenty articles in reputed international magazines.

The president emphasized that it was a strategic objective to attract foreign tutors to Budapest, but at the same time, they would like to facilitate that Hungarian tutors could teach at least one semester at famous foreign universities in the future.

Another point was the intention to increase the number of international students, and, in parallel with that, work in the direction of making the institution a bilingual university, so English as a language of education would be more important in the future.

The hall has been renewed, and more developments are expected to come

The green wall completed recently and decorated with plants was also mentioned, this made the spectacular community place of the university even more attractive.

During the speeches of the three managers, tutors were able to ask questions in comments, and the speakers responded to them later. There was a question asking how industrial and practical experience could be utilised during the training, and in his reply, András Lánczi rector mentioned the dual training in the campus at Székesfehérvár as a positive example, and indicated that they were trying to make better use of the corporate relation system of the university.

Anthony Radev president added that a research project was going on, in which interviews would be conducted with the most important domestic companies. They will examine the areas where the training at Corvinus could improve, where they could find trainee positions for students, and in what subjects the staff of the companies would be willing to deliver lectures at the university.

Because of the epidemic situation, there was a question about the possibility of home office, the rector replied that under certain conditions everybody can work in home office, but teaching should take place personally under the possible conditions and meeting the security measures.

There were questions about increasing the room capacity and the schedule of setting up smart rooms. Ákos Domahidi, chancellor, explained that he is aware of the demand for more classrooms, and they wished to manage this and the development of the smart rooms under the uniform institution development concept to be completed by the end of the year.

In reply to a question about the expected campus opening by the Fudan University of Shanghai, Anthony Radev said they see it as a possibility, and not as a threat. The managers of the Chinese institution are also ready to co-operate, and for the Corvinus, it is a strategic objective to establish good relations, from which the Hungarian university could benefit, too.

At the end, the president noted that they continuously expected feedbacks from colleagues about the changes, as they wished to set up the new structure jointly, in co-operation with the colleagues, and wished to know the opinions of the staff of the institution.

The managers of the university will hold similar online forums for the students, too, and project managers will also provide detailed information on the current status of individual projects. At these forums, anyone can ask questions about university life and teaching.