Budapest University of Technology and Economics

Budapest University of Technology and Economics

Budapesti Műszaki és Gazdaságtudományi Egyetem
Motto	Courses in Contemporary Engineering - harmonising theory and practice
Type	Public University
Established	1782
Rector	Prof. Dr. Péceli Gábor
Students	24,000
Location	Budapest , Hungary
Affiliations	EUA, CESAER, IAU, Santander Network, DRC, SEFI, AUF, ISEP, IAESTE, NEPTUN, TIME, Athens Network, BEST, AIESEC (local site), W3C
Website	http://portal.bme.hu/langs/en/

The Budapest University of Technology and Economics ([Budapesti Műszaki és Gazdaságtudományi Egyetem or in short Műegyetem] Error: {{Lang-xx}}: text has italic markup (help)), abbreviated as BME, is the most significant University of Technology in Hungary and is also one of the oldest Institutes of Technology in the world, having been founded in 1782.

History

BME is considered the oldest Intitutes of Technology of university rank and structure in the world. The legal predecessor of the university was founded in 1782 by Emperor Joseph II, and was named Latin: Institutum Geometrico-Hydrotechnicum ("Institute of Geometry and Hydrotechnics").

The "Berg-Schola", the world's first institute of technology, was founded in Selmecbánya , Kingdom of Hungary (today Banská Štiavnica, Slovakia) in 1735. Many members of the first teaching staff of BME arrived from Selmecbánya.

It was reorganized in 1871 as Royal Joseph Technical University and was elevated to equal rank with other universities in the country. In 1910 it moved to its current site near Gellért square (next to the Art Nouveau Hotel Gellért). In 1934 it was reorganized again as Palatine Joseph University of Technology and Economics and it played a dominant role in the interwar industrialization process, together with engineer and economist training in Hungary.

The university was restructured again after the Second World War. The 1956 Hungarian Revolution was partly launched by students at the university, followed by many professors. In 1967 the two technical universities seated in Budapest were merged to form the Technical University of Budapest with six faculties. In 2000 – two years after the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences was established – the official name changed to Budapest University of Technology and Economics.

People

The university has approximately 1,100 faculty members. About a third of its 24,000 students are foreign students, from fifty countries. BME issues about 70% of Hungary's engineering degrees.

Famous alumni

Nobel Laureates

• Dénes Gábor, inventor of holography (1971 Nobel Prize in Physics)
• George Oláh (1994 Nobel Prize in Chemistry)
• Eugene Wigner (1963 Nobel Prize in Physics)

Others

• Alfréd Hajós
• Alajos Hauszmann
• Donát Bánki
• Csaba Horváth
• Kálmán Kandó
• Tódor Kármán
• Károly Kós
• Dénes Mihály
• Ernő Rubik
• Imre Steindl
• Leó Szilárd.

Today

The "K", central building looking from the river Danube

In May 2000 the university had 1,024 regular faculty members (more than 50% of whom had a PhD in a scientific field). 34 professors/researchers of the university are members of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

Training courses are provided in five languages: Hungarian, English, German, French and Russian.

The ECTS credit system was introduced in 1995. This helps students to enroll in the student exchange program of the European Union, the Socrates (also known as Erasmus) and earn a double degree through the Top Industrial Managers for Europe network.

University Rank

According to webometrics.info, in 2010 BME university was ranked 97th in the Top 100 European universities and 269th in the top 8000 worldwide.

Colleges

At present university has eight Colleges (founding date in parentheses):

• College of Civil Engineering (1782)
• College of Mechanical Engineering (1871)
• College of Architecture (1873)
• College of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology (1873)
• College of Electrical Engineering and Informatics (1949)
• College of Transportation Engineering (1955)
• College of Natural Sciences (1987)
• College of Economics and Social Sciences (1998)

Admissions

All Hungarians who pass the Hungarian high school matura with enough points are eligible for admission, as is well as for anyone else in possession of an International Baccalaureate (again, with enough points).

As with all Hungarian universities, a tuition fee of around $700 has to be paid each year for the Hungarian program &nbsp. No extra fee is required for Hungarians for whom it is their first university, unless they spend more than 13 semesters there.

The university offers extensive English language programs on all its faculties, at all levels of study (Preparatory Year, Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Arts, Master of Science, Doctor of Philosophy). The Tuition fees vary from €2250 - €4500 per semester. 6% of all students come from different countries of the world representing over fifty different countries; the majority of the students in the English Program are from Turkey, Iran and Cyprus.

Location

Roof of the library building

The university is located on the left side of the Danube between Szabadság Bridge and Petőfi Bridge and towards Lágymányosi Bridge. This makes the university campus especially long and narrow: walking from one side of the university to the other can take as much as 20 minutes.

The Inner City of Budapest (Pest) is just across the river, about 10 minutes' walk by either of the bridges.

Sports

The University hosted the IFIUS 2008 World Interuniversity Games in October.

External links

• Official website
• International Education Center
• Detailed history in English and in Hungarian
• Photo Gallery--A very large collection
• Map of the university
• Aerial photographs of the University