Get to know the University of Dunaújváros, where you can always find a place for comfortable study

The “Study in Hungary” (www.studyinhungary.eu) education service made an interview with Dr. Mónika Rajcsányi-Molnár, the Vice-Rector of Academic and General Affairs at the University of Dunaújváros.

Study in Hungary: Please introduce yourself to our readers.

Dr. Mónika Rajcsányi-Molnár: I would like to greet and welcome every reader in the name of the University of Dunaújváros, Hungary! My name is Dr. Mónika Rajcsányi-Molnár and I am the Vice-Rector of Academic and General Affairs at our university. Before I got the responsibilities of being a Vice Rector I worked as the Head of the International Relations Department of our university for many years, and ever since the internationalization of our university campus, the education of a growing number of courses of more and more study programs in English, the needs of our international students have always been at my heart.

Study in Hungary: Which programs does the University of Dunaújváros offer for foreign students and what are the languages of instruction?

We offer 6 first cycle degree programs and 2 second cycle degree programs taught completely in English language.

These are the:

• Business Administration BA
• Communication and Media BA
• Computer Engineering BSc
• Technical Management BSc (this one due to its educational content was known before as Engineering Business Management)
• Material Engineering BSc (in Hungary we are one of the 3 schools that offers this program but we have the greatest tradition and experience)
• Mechanical Engineering BSc
• Mechanical Engineering MSc
• Teacher of Engineering MA

For our English language programs we offer a 1 year preparatory program for those students whose English language level is under the requirements (below IELTS 5.5).

Due to their educational programs English is the language that our international students coming from many countries use to communicate with each other and with the teaching and administrative staff of the university, as well.

Study in Hungary: Could you give information about your campus, dormitory, facilities and life quality of the international students to us?

The University of Dunaújváros is a University of Applied Sciences with a modern, European level campus, with vivid student life and high quality educational programs. Our higher educational institution is focusing mainly on Engineering and offering (one of) the best Mechanical Engineering programs and Material Engineering programs in English language in Hungary! The total number of our international students is more than 170 international students, who come to study in our different English language programs from 32 countries, actually from all over the world.

We are not a big institution – with so many teachers and even more students – which means, our teachers know their students – especially the international students – personally!

As it is said at our university “The student is not only a Neptune code at our institution.” (Neptun code is an identification code for the official electronic study system in Hungary.)

In our school we have a view, that the professors and the students have a more personal relationship – students usually accepted as colleagues in different research projects – and they can solve their problems within a friendlier atmosphere. In this academic year two of the international students were involved by their teachers in the researches of the Institute of Engineering Sciences and another 2 international students in the research project of the Secudit IT security.

Talking about our student life: we are one of the four proud keepers of the Selmecbánya heritage in Hungary. Selmecbánya is a city now located in Slovakia however before the I. World War in the time of the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy and even before it was the part Hungary for a thousand years. Selmecbánya was a famous and rich city with hundreds-year- old mining and metallurgy traditions. After the World Wars, Hungary lost Selmecbánya, however the teachers and professors from there moved to the new, small Hungary and they established new schools – one of them in Dunaújváros – on the base of the Selmecbánya traditions. The academic heritage of Selmecbánya is a living cultural tradition: our students have groups based on their study programs and every group has their official ceremonies, uniforms for celebrations, songs and poems, competitions, parties and life-long memberships.

Our foreign students can join these groups with the willingness of learning some basic Hungarian language.

It is also important to mention that we are really proud of the modern educational infrastructure of our campus. The University of Dunaújváros has great laboratories, as well, a part of which serves the practical needs of our education, and quite a few of them are devoted to research & development in cooperation with the significant industrial companies of our region. In collaboration with the Bosch Company, we have a life-term examination laboratory, one of the very few with the same function in whole Europe! Another laboratory of ours working with the NASA and the ESA creating and testing materials for spacecrafts. Some of our language laboratories equipped fully with Apple Macintosh computers and we have a fully equipped TV studio – an exact copy about second largest commercial TV company’s studio of Hungary – where our students can practice every aspects of the media profession.

We provide accommodation to every international student in our dormitory buildings at a reasonable price. We have got room for the students with 2 or 3 beds, each room has got a bathroom. And in the community rooms on every floor of the dormitory there are community rooms: a kitchen for cooking and a room for washing and drying the clothes.

Study in Hungary: What are the tuition fees, dormitory costs and other living expenses of your students?

The tuition fee for an undergraduate program is EUR 3.950,- for two semesters, for a complete academic year at our university. It is EUR 4.400,- for one academic year of a master program.

The 1-year-long preparatory program in English language also costs EUR 3.950,-. We offer the preparatory program of ours to those new international students, whose level of English language needs to be improved before they start a bachelor or a master degree program.

The accommodation fee in the dormitory is EUR 120,-/ month with the expenses of utilities (such as heating, hot and cold running water, electricity, etc.) included in that price. The average living costs for an international student in Dunaújváros is around EUR 200,- per month however it also varies depending on the living style and habits of the student.

Study in Hungary: Many foreign students choose their universities based on different factors, including the city where it is located. What are the advantages of Dunaújváros compared to the other Hungarian cities?

Dunaújváros is a middle-sized town in Hungary on the bank of the Danube, with so many peaceful and green places for relaxing and studying.

The campus is also located in the inner city of Dunaújváros, so from the campus it is easy-to-reach our contracted doctor’s office, the hospital and the polyclinic buildings, several banks, the swimming-pool complex, the central bus station, the post office, many shops, department stores with only a few-minute-long walk. Our town is situated 70 kms away from Budapest, the capital of Hungary to the South. It is easy, fast and comfortable to travel to Budapest from Dunaújváros by either the long-distance bus service or by train, which takes a little bit more than one hour.

In Budapest, you can always find a place for more party, in Dunaújváros you can always find a place for comfortable study – which does not mean that the student cannot find parties here – and when we are talking about fee paying educational programs, I think the second one is more important.

Study in Hungary: Could you share the basic statistics (total offered programs, percentage of the international students, foreign partner universities, etc.) and facts about your university?

Our higher educational institution was established in 1953 in Dunaújváros, more than 60 years ago. Our study program range has been gradually but continuously extended since that time. Now we offer 4 vocational higher educational programs, 8 undergraduate study programs, 2 master programs and 12 professional further educational study programs.

Now the 15% percent of our total student population are international students. Besides other inter-institutional collaborations we have got 59 international partner institutions just in the Erasmus program.

Study in Hungary: What are the current and new target countries for the University of Dunaújváros to recruit new students?

Students who want to come to Dunaújváros with the intention to continue higher educational studies are welcome from many countries all over the world. In our marketing communication recently, we are focusing stronger on the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States, such as Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, etc. China has always been one of the most important countries for our student recruitment, and we hope it will go on like that in the future, too. Many students of ours coming from P.R.C. graduated at our university since the start of our courses in English. Vietnam is also a very interesting new area from which we would like to attract new students to our study program.

New students’ arrival we expect from countries of the Near East, the Middle East and Africa, from which areas we already had both full-time and part-time students in the last few academic years.

Study in Hungary: What kind of support services (visa application, healthcare during studies, legal assistance, career advancing, etc.) do you provide to your international students?

After that we accept a student’s application, our international relations office provides effective support for the visa application of the new students by making the necessary letters and by giving information about the student application procedure.

Starting every academic year each student is obliged to make a student health insurance which makes medical services in our town available for the students.

The students can contact the customer service of the international relations office and the Study Administration Office on the work-days of the week in person, and have also got the opportunity to ask their questions via e-mail. We have got student mentors whose work support the adaption of the student to the life of the campus and also to the Hungarian environment.

Study in Hungary: Who are your notable alumni? Please, share a few outstanding stories from them.

We receive information from a significant number of our graduated international students who managed to get a good job and keep their position at due to the professional knowledge and the open-minded, eager-to learn-new-things attitude in their profession, which they developed/ acquired or improved in their university years in Dunaújváros.

Some of them work as managers on the level of intermediate leadership of enterprises and middle-sized or large companies.

Study in Hungary: What are the potential employment opportunities and where do most of your graduates work?

Dunaújváros is a middle-sized industrial town in Hungary, which has such formidable companies in its industrial areas, as the ISD Dunaferr Zrt, (the largest steel factory of our country) or Hankook Tyre company. Certainly Budapest offers a wider range of opportunities to our graduated students.

Nevertheless many graduated international students of ours travel back to their home country or find a job in their profession in European countries.

Source: Study in Hungary