Eotvos Lorand University Hungary

Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) is among the oldest seats of higher education in Hungary, and has been the leading university of the country – as evidenced by international higher education rankings – for many years. Throughout the course of its history, which stretches back almost four centuries, ELTE’s excellence has been based on the strong ties between education and research. Its mission includes preserving and enriching culture at national and universal levels, cultivating science and passing on academic knowledge, and shaping and satisfying the long-term needs of society.
ELTE, founded in 1635 and the longest continuously operating university of Hungary, serves the interests of high quality education and research, building upon the best European traditions. Motivated by the conviction that excellence in higher education is inconceivable without first-rate research, ELTE aims to represent both sides of the traditional concept of universitas at the best possible level: the creative community of instructors and students (universitas magistrorum et discipulorum) and the ideal of an institution actively engaged in the pursuit of various scientific and scholarly disciplines (universitas scientiarum).
The idea behind the activities related to research, development and innovation at Eötvös Loránd University can best be expressed with the words of Loránd Eötvös, eponym of the university: “Scholarly is the school, scholarly is the education there and only there, where scholars are teaching.” (Academic Inaugural, 1883) Thus, Eötvös Loránd University has always considered high-quality research the guarantee of quality in general.
Research activities at the eight faculties of Eötvös Loránd University are exceptionally diverse, covering nearly all scientific fields. With regard to the main branches of science, its research and unique products assure Eötvös Loránd University of a respected place in the spheres of physical and life sciences, informatics, humanities, educational sciences and jurisprudence, as well as the social sciences.
In past years it has been a central aim of the university to maintain and promote the diversity of its research portfolio, while it has become increasingly common for our scholars to focus their efforts on specific subjects relating to international trends and current social challenges. The quality and quantity of research is well reflected in the programmes of the doctoral schools of ELTE, covering a broad, almost complete spectrum of the sciences. The number of highly qualified supervisors in the doctoral schools is also extraordinarily high.
With eight faculties, ELTE covers almost every field of science, including business and economics, education and psychology, humanities, informatics, legal and political sciences, natural sciences, and primary and pre-school education as well as special education. Of the 30,000 students of our University, 3,000 are international students, arriving from all over the world thanks to more than 150 bilateral and over 1,000 Erasmus+ partnerships including International Credit Mobility co-operations. With 70 languages taught and/or researched at the Faculty of Humanities, ELTE is among the universities teaching the highest number of languages worldwide.
Eötvös Loránd university offers degree programmes at undergraduate (BA/BSc), graduate (MA/MSc) and postgraduate (PhD) levels. A wide range of curricula and courses – both full- and part time – are available in English and other foreign languages. Some programmes offer special preparatory courses as well. With more than 80 programmes taught in foreign languages, ELTE offers a wide range of choices to students seeking academic advancement at the highest level.
ELTE coordinates a number of mobility programmes. The institution’s most important grant programme is Erasmus+, which offers university students, instructors, and administrative staff opportunities to exchange ideas and experience at international level. Of all Hungarian institutions, ELTE sends the most students abroad on scholarships. Cooperation with other mobility programmes such as CEEPUS (Central European Exchange Program for University Studies), and other bilateral student mobility schemes, enables our university to send more than 1,000 students abroad each year.
Beyond its excellence within Hungarian higher education, ELTE is a strong link between many countries in Europe and beyond with its wide-spread network of partnerships. Serving as a bridge between tradition and innovation, and as an institution where interest can become scientific knowledge and where good skills are transformed into high-level academic expertise, ELTE offers its international students the excellence in education and science that has characterized it throughout its history.
ELTE aims to educate diversely qualified intellectuals with up-to-date knowledge who can identify and analyse problems, are able to propose problem-solving strategies and take responsible decisions, constantly seek consensus, and understand and respect different cultures, are aware of their individual responsibilities with regard to the future of their immediate environment, stand for the values of professionalism, solidarity, and humanism, respect universal ethical norms¸ human dignity, and the freedom of thought and opinion.
To pursue these goals in accordance with four centuries of tradition, ELTE aims to offer valuable, up-to-date knowledge, a modern way of thinking, and competitive degrees to its students through the joint efforts of the citizens of the university,
include high quality masters level and doctoral programmes in its education structure and widen the range of inter- and multidisciplinary programmes, and courses offered in foreign languages, as well as programmes conducted in partnership with top-ranking international institutions of higher education,
pursue research, development and innovation activities that are globally acclaimed and capable of responding to complex social challenges, and which focus on social and technological issues still to be tackled, and thus to perform its role as a competitive research university in Europe,
to foster the development of talented individuals and to increase the number of highly qualified and productive instructors and researchers by providing them with an attractive teaching and research environment,
to maintain a value-based and efficient relationship with its immediate and broader environment, thus acting as one of the leading university centres of the Central European region.