The degree and title Civis Honoris Causa may be conferred on individuals from Hungary or abroad, honoring their contributions to public life or their outstanding achievements in arts, for facilitating, either through their general efforts or their moral and/or financial support, the strengthening of the reputation of the university, or an organizational unit thereof.
According to the nomination seconded by the Senate of the University of Debrecen "mind a magyar kormányzat, mind az Orosz Föderáció jelentős szerepet szán a Debreceni Egyetemnek a Paks II-es programban" [both the Government of Hungary and the Russian Federation intend to allocate the University of Debrecen a significant part to play in the investment project Paks II]. A strategic agreement signed between the University of Debrecen and the company Rosatom contains a passage on how the educational institution would take part in the training of experts required for the completion of the project. Additional objectives include the participation in trade projects affiliated with organizations that belong to the scope of interest of the Russian partner in areas like the development, production, and distribution of machinery and equipment in the fields of diagnostic and therapeutic isotopes to be used for medical purposes and in isotope technology within the food industry.
The agreement of cooperation between the University of Debrecen and Rosatom was signed on June 19, at the Moscow ATOMEXPO exhibition by Rector Zoltán Szilvássy, Chancellor Zoltán Bács, and Alexander Merten, President of JSC “Rusatom International Network.” As a strategic agreement, it provides the essential basis for the cooperation between the contracting parties in the areas of education and science through participation in joint projects, including the arrangement of bilateral seminar and lecture courses, the joint publication of teaching material, and the exchange of university students, with the involvement of Russian technical institutions of higher education.
Between 2000 and 2008, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the President of the Russian Federation and, from May 2008 onwards, he acted as its Head of State. At present, he is the fourth President of the Russian Federation. As an awardee, he will be officially informed about the fact of the conferment of his honorary title in the next couple of days, while the details of information concerning the time and place of the actual ceremony are to be announced at some later stage.
The Civis Honoris Causa degree established by the University of Debrecen was first awarded in 2014 to György Habsburg, while its second recipient was President of the Slovak Republic Rudolf Schuster in 2016.
The University of Debrecen is to award the honorary degree Civis Honoris Causa to Russian Federation President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, based upon a resolution passed by the Senate of the institution on August 18, 2017.
