The Pallas Athena Foundations: Developments at the Kecskemét College
The Pallas Athena Foundations were established by the National Bank of Hungary (MNB) in 2014. HUF 260 billion were allocated to the foundations by the MNB to fund different educational programmes. Currently, significant developments are on the way at the Kecskemét College.
Construction on the new building of the Faculty of Economics campus began last autumn at the location of the former Izsák Street Hospital. With the addition of the new faculty the college can become a university of applied sciences. The construction project is the largest of its kind in the history of Kecskemét. To carry out the project, the six foundations established Kecskeméti Duális Oktatás Zrt. (KEDO Zrt.), and they are working on a budget of approximately HUF 15 billion.
“Kecskemét is one of the most dynamically developing cities in Hungary. International companies, like Mercedes-Benz, operate there, they need educated workforce, and at the same time, it is an opportunity for certain applied sciences to be taught there. This investment project is to make sure that Kecskemét has a higher education institution worthy of the development of the city,” says Zoltán Fekete, CEO of Optima Plc., the asset management company of the foundations.
The new campus will consist of five buildings: an educational centre, an administrative building, a library, a hostel, and a cultural centre, the total useful areas amounting to 30,000 square metres. The campus will be connected by overpasses to the faculty of technology, as well as the former Rudolf military barracks, where the municipality of Kecskemét will construct a family sports and recreation centre.
As stated in the statute and the social responsibility strategy of the MNB, the bank’s goal is to advance the financial culture of Hungary, to encourage the economic and social thinking behind the financial culture, and to strengthen the related institutional system and infrastructure.
Copy editor: bm
Source: Daily News Hungary