Pioneering Event Organized by the BME for International Students

With the support of EELISA, the leaders of the Student Career Path Programme (HÉP), which coordinates the development of services, information and community initiatives at university level to promote student integration and student well-being for the international students at the BME, organized a conference with the participation of about 100 staff member, faculty members responsible for international education, education organizers of the faculties and the staff members of the Central Academic Office on 15 May 2024. Presentations, workshops and a poster presentations related to the student career path of foreign students were also part of the programme.
 

The first session of the conference was opened by Emilia Csiszár, Vice-Rector for International Affairs, who highlighted that internationalization is a strategic goal of the BME, i.e. BME should occupy a leading position in international education, research and innovation, similar to its position in Hungary. This requires a concentrated effort to perform well in a number of specific focus areas and to develop these focus areas at international level. Our University’s achievements and their propagation will promote the development, maintenance and deepening of an image and reputation beyond our borders, which is highly important for reaching prospective international students.

Next, László Gergely Vigh, Director of Department of International Academic Affairs (INYOI), initiator and coordinator of HÉP, told that the number of foreign language programmes at the BME doubled between 2015 and 2021, and presented the trends in the number of foreign students and the results of surveys. With the participation of the BME as a founding member, the EELISA European university alliance was established in 2021, so alongside the joint and double degree programmes, BME students can now study, research and carry out EELISA activities at 9 leading European universities. The Student Career Path Programme (HÉP) embodying the BME's internal internationalization efforts and some elements of EELISA meet along a number of objectives at numerous junctions along the student carrier path. The guiding principle of innovative education introduced techniques such as project based thinking, soft-skill training and curriculum development, to meet the needs of industry.  László Gergely Vigh also said that with the broadening educational portfolios the number of international students is also constantly increasing, which was one of the main reasons for setting up the HÉP working group three years ago. Many departments, MTA colleagues and non-teaching colleagues are actively involved, which has helped achieve the current results. The HÉP developments are based on BME resources, within the framework and with the commitments and support of the 10-year-old Stipendium Hungaricum programme and EELISA.

Tamás Lovas, the leader of the Student Career Path Programme and the main organizer of the conference, talked about the first steps of the “HÉP group” and the still relevant medium-term goals of it: promoting the BME's programmes abroad for student recruitment; supporting the integration of students into the community; intercultural sensitization involving faculty members, staff and students; developing a common language by standardizing or improving regulations, signs, communication interfaces; building general skills needed for engineering education and modernizing communication platforms, mainly to build and strengthen the university (alumni) community. Based on the goals set, the HÉP can now deliver achievements such as the Survival Hungarian and BME etiquette lecture series, the creation of a community space in the building E or the creation of a searchable, uniform university terminology database by the Centre of Modern Languages. The Pre-Engineering Programme, a preparatory course that prepares future international BME students for their student years in a uniform way at university level, has also been renewed.

The visibility of these results is supported by the Department of Communications of the Rector's Office. Bálint Molnár, Director of Communications, also talked about the central communication platforms, such as the xplore.bme.hu website for prospective international students, and its renewed professional profiles and content. He emphasized that in addition to the specific website, the team also actively operates other English-language social media platforms. These are highly important channels not only for day-to-day communication, but also for reaching prospective students abroad at this very moment when on the platforms, an admissions campaign helps applicate for our English-language educational programmes. These include platforms where our institution provides more than 85,000 followers with news or calls for applications. 

After the presentations, the participant split into four groups worked on a topic in an interactive workshop with the help of moderators (Ildikó Furka - Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences, Balázs Bokor - Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Róbert Szávuly and Dávid Kecskeméti - International Mentor Team, Bálint Molnár - Rector’s Office). After contemplating the issues of carrier guidance, student services, student integration and alumni, the teams put into words some suggestions that the participants discussed together following the thematic workshops. Building on the valuable conclusions, the work will be taken forward in several professional directions in the future.

The conference ended with a poster presentation, visually presenting the most important activities, workflows and opportunities related to the working groups as well as the professional and social life of international students. After HÉP, the BME International Mentor Team - IMT also presented itself, which supports BME international students in administrative matters, and provides them with practical advice related to day-to-day life and community events. But smaller thematic groups have been also organized independently, where students study and grow together. One example is the Google Developer Student Group, the member of which not only created their own poster for the event, but also presented their student community experiences in person as a closing element of the professional day.

The conference organizers thanked the staff of Stipendium Hungaricum, EELISA and Erasmus+ for their help in organizing the conference.

A video of the event and several interviews were recorded and will be available on BME's YouTube page soon!

Rector's Office Department of Communications

Photo: B. Geberle