National Officer Training To Continue On University Level

To celebrate the successful accreditation of the institution, a public Senate session was held Wednesday afternoon in the banqueting hall of Zrínyi Miklós University of National Defence. Minister of Defence Dr. Imre Szekeres, who was received by military honours in the parade ground of the university before the session, also attended the event.

In his speech congratulating the university Imre Szekeres said that as the minister and the maintainer of the institution, he was pleased to see the report of the Hungarian Accreditation Committee (HAC), informing him about the fact that based on the self-assessment of the institution and the experiences gained by the Visiting Committee the panel has approved the accreditation of Zrínyi Miklós University of National Defence until December 31, 2017.

The minister added: the university was eligible for accreditation because it offers basic and Master’s degree programs in several fields, furthermore it is entitled to run doctoral courses in various sciences and confer doctorate. In addition to that it also has a regular research and teaching staff, and thirty per cent of the teachers have a scientific degree. Moreover, the institution possesses the material requirements of education and scientific research.

– While it fosters the spirit and traditions of the more than 200-year-old Hungarian language officer training, by transmitting national and universal culture, military science and arts, the university contributes to the preparation of officer candidates and civilian students for living as intellectuals. In addition to that, I believe it is also important that the quality of the courses keeps improving and it complies with the rapidly changing requirements of higher education, and as regards the military courses, with the requirements of the Hungarian Defence Forces – said Imre Szekeres, who also mentioned how busy the last two years have been for every citizen of the university due to the transformation of the institution, and they have witnessed some major changes.

There have been several considerable changes, transformations. They have switched to a sustainable infrastructure, in the framework of which a nearly 4 billion forint development has been realized at the Hungária körút campus. The university has moved to a single campus, concentrating the infrastructural requirements of modern education – listed the head of the defence portfolio.

The minister added: the successful accreditation allows Hungarian national officer training to continue on university level until 2017. But in addition to maintaining the standard of officer training as an elite training, more flexible, so-called market conform courses have be offered to the civilian students. In order to do so, new faculties have to be established, specializations have to be developed, and the range of courses has to be widened.

Finally Imre Szekeres also mentioned that for the sake of replacement and recruitment they have launched a new subject called Basic National Defence Studies in cooperation with other universities, and it is now an optional subject in several institutions of higher education. In addition to that, the subject Basic Military Studies has been taught in more than eighty secondary schools as of this September, and it can be chosen as a final examination subject.

Dr. István Greiner, the deputy chairman of the Hungarian Accreditation Committee (MAB) said: a moment like this is very rare in the life of a university. But in this great moment we must also think about the tremendous amount of work it has taken the university to get to this level.

The deputy chairman of MAB added: Zrínyi Miklós University of National Defence has absolutely deserved to get to this level, to earn accreditation for a further eight years. And the certificate of accreditation means that the university has performed, and when it has been weighed on the scales, it has been found suitable.

– Nevertheless, it also has to be seen that accreditation means that work must continue at least on this level. My personal impression was that the national defence university deserves this accreditation in all respect. But we still have a lot to do, of course – said István Greiner, and handed over the certificate of accreditation to retired Brigadier-General Dr. János Szabó, the rector of the university.

In his speech responding to the deputy chairman, the rector underlined: the program accreditation of national defence and military education majors, and the institutional accreditation of the university have been tasks of key importance in the past few years. The self-assessment was completed by deadline, and the Visiting Committee of MAB inspected the university between 16-18 March.

János Szabó added: the institution has always devoted great care to satisfying the maintainer and main client, the Hungarian Defence Forces. In the previous academic year – as a result of moving to one campus – a fundamental change has begun in the military education of officer cadets with a scholarship. The institution has also decided to approximate to the military system of the Hungarian Defence Forces as regards the structure of the student organization and the actual implementation of the military socialization activity, and create circumstances in which military education uses the transferred models when realizing the expectations of the defence leadership and meets the professional requirements set by the chief of staff of the MoD.

– The gala session of the Senate is also a good occasion for us to think about the main development directions of the university in the coming eight years. The prerequisites of a good university are top class scientific work, quality education, and a modern syllabus – said the rector of ZMNE, who also mentioned that the university will not give up its complex resource organization policy and ’standing on many legs’. But presumably, they will have to refine this further, and find their own tasks in order to give survival and further development a chance.

In his response János Szabó also emphasized that the fundamental strategic task of the university in the next period will be to prepare and implement the change of focus in defence policy. For all over the world the most modern military forces are switching to knowledge-intensive, capability-intensive structures in which capabilities are more and more preferred.

– Following the study of the accreditation report, keeping its recommendations in mind, the leadership and citizens of the university will do their best in order that eight years from now the self-assessment of a 21st century, modern institution can be sent to the accreditation committee – the rector of ZMNE closed his speech.

The December 3 session of the Senate ended in an unusual way, with a gala program: the performance of the Grazia violin trio.