Timeline

The first predecessor institution of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, the Institutum Geometrico-Hydrotechnicum, is founded, with training programmes in surveying, cartography, hydraulic engineering and flood control. This is the time from which the Faculty of Civil Engineering dates its existence.

The Joseph College of Technology opens with technical, commercial and economic departments.

The students of the College of Technology formulate their demands in 12 points during the days of the Revolution and War of Independence, and in the same year the university library is founded, the first volumes of which are donated to the institution by József Eötvös.

The merger of the Institutum Geometrico-Hydrotechnicum and the Joseph College of Technology creates the German-language Joseph Industrieschule, with a non-higher education training programme.

The Joseph Polytechnicum is founded with technical and economics departments, with higher education training, and in Buda again.

The institution is elevated to university status and continues to operate under the name “Királyi József Műegyetem” (Royal Joseph University of Technology), becoming the first technical higher education institution in the world to bear the word university in its name, and the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering is established.

The departments of Architecture and Chemistry, the predecessors of the Faculty of Architecture and the Faculty of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology are born.

BME moves into the Museum Boulevard buildings.

The university is granted the right to award doctorates to the first Hungarian doctor of technical sciences, civil engineer Szilárd Zielinski, a pioneer of reinforced concrete architecture.

The university also acquires the right to award honorary doctorates, the first being conferred on Archduke Joseph von Habsburg, who presents the university with rectorial and dean's chains.

Eszter Pécsi, the first woman engineer to graduate from BME and in Hungary, receives her degree.

Merged with three other higher education institutions, the university continues to operate under the name “Magyar királyi József nádor Műszaki és Gazdaságtudományi Egyetem” (Royal Hungarian Archduke Joseph University of Technology and Economics), and with its 98 departments it becomes the largest university in the country.

The Budapest University of Technology is established, the predecessor of today's Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics is founded, and over the next 30 years 11 new academic buildings are added to the campus in the streets leading to Petőfi Bridge.

The University of Transport Engineering, the predecessor of today's Faculty of Transportation Engineering and Vehicle Engineering is established.

The institution is split into the Budapest University of Technology and the Technical University of Construction and Transport.

The previously separated institutions merge under the name of Budapest University of Technology.

Building “I” is inaugurated and the independent Faculty of Natural Sciences and the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences are born.

The university takes the name Budapest University of Technology and Economics, which is still used today.

The institution is awarded the title of research university and the “Q” building is added to the campus.