- The alumni community and the doctoral school as a pool of young researchers have always played an important role in the life of the Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Debrecen. The numbers speak for themselves: the number of doctoral students is hardly lower than that of teachers. The education of the researchers of tomorrow is a huge responsibility for both the Faculty and the University – emphasized Károly Pető, vice rector for general affairs of UD and dean of the Faculty of Economics and Business at the opening session of the conference.
At the Alumni Conference, which was organised by the Károly Ihrig Doctoral School of Management and Business, professor László Csernoch, vice rector for scientific affairs and president of the Hungarian Doctoral Council talked about the changes in the rules of the new doctoral education system introduced in 2016 and the experience gained during the operation of the system.
- The Hungarian Doctoral Council and the Association of Hungarian PhD and DLA Candidates have jointly suggested the provision of higher scholarship payment for doctoral students, because the sums have not changed in the last 6 years, therefore the scholarship cannot be considered competitive in several areas. Our goal is to see the sums raised to HUF 200,000 and HUF 240,000. We have also initiated the introduction of excellence scholarships, which will affect one fourth of the doctoral candidates, and the modification of language competencies, which will include phasing out the second foreign language requirement and the development of students’ technical language skills – explained professor Csernoch.
The purpose of the conference was to foster the relationship between the doctoral school and its former students and to strengthen the links of alumni to UD.
- Currently, the Károly Ihrig Doctoral School of Management and Business has 154 candidates, out of which 65 attends an English-language programme. The high number of candidates inspires the staff of the doctoral school and supervisors to continuously raise the quality of their educational activities. Candidates of the Károly Ihrig Doctoral School successfully pass the complex final examination, and obtain their research degrees. Hardly any candidates drop out – added Péter Balogh, head of the Károly Ihrig Doctoral School of Management and Business.
At the conference, members of the academic staff presented the results of a 5-year programme, which had been designed to help talented young researchers obtain their research degrees and to support their career development.
- The purpose of the programme, which was launched in 2017, was to support talent management areas – doctoral education, conferences organised by scientific students’ associations, and special collages – in order to make academic career attractive for students attending bachelor’s and master’s courses. Three faculties – the Faculty of Management and Business, the Faculty of Law, and the Faculty of Humanities – and four special colleges of UD were involved in the programme, along with the István Nyirkos Special College that had been established within the framework of the development programme. The results include the introduction of a new doctoral programme and a new research database, supporting candidates in participating in Hungarian and international conferences and facilitating the publication of research findings in prestigious international journals, the provision of scientific and predoctoral scholarships, and a significant increase in the number of volumes in faculty libraries – said Krisztina Dajnoki, director of the Institute of Management and Organisation of the Faculty of Management and Business, technical coordinator of the project.
More than 1,000 students involved in a bachelor’s or a master’s programme participated in the 5-year programme, which facilitated the professional development of PhD students and postdoctoral students, and helped 89 researchers to obtain a research degree, or their next degree, including habilitation. Owing to the project, 223 presentations were given at conferences, and over 80 scientific articles and other publications were published.
The program was implemented in the framework of the EFOP-3.6.3-VEKOP-16-2017-00007 project entitled “From Talent to Young Researcher project aimed at activities supporting the research career model in higher education”, and was supported by a non-repayable grant in an amount of HUF 535 million. The consortium partners of UD involved in the development project were Eötvös Lóránd University and the University of Pécs, the consortium was led by the Corvinus University Budapest.
Press Centre – ÉE
