Budapest tech university joins European innovation alliance

The Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) has joined an alliance comprising ten European engineering universities aimed at developing innovative teaching methods and a uniform system of engineering degrees, the daily Magyar Nemzet said on Friday.

The European Engineering Learning Innovation and Science Alliance (EELISA) has been awarded a 5 million euro grant from the European Commission for a three-year period, the paper said.

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As part of their alliance, EELISA member universities will share their education, research and development methods with each other, coordinate their degree programmes and organise joint courses, mobility schemes and competitions, Magyar Nemzet added.

Balázs Vince Nagy, BME’s vice-rector for international affairs, told the paper that EELISA would “go well beyond” the university’s existing partnerships under the Erasmus student exchange programme.

“The essence of EELISA is that instead of just linking institutes and departments, it will connect the entire university to the international bloodstream,” Nagy said.

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All 170,000 students of the ten universities will have equal access to the same innovative methods and the results achieved under the partnership, he said, adding that the long-term goal was for the universities to issue joint degrees that are recognised across the European Union.

Source: MTI