The Budapest University of Technology and Economics (Hungarian: Budapesti Műszaki és Gazdaságtudományi Egyetem, shortened to Műegyetem), official abbreviation BME, is a public research university located in Budapest, Hungary. It is the most significant university of technology in the country and is considered the world's oldest institute of technology with university rank and structure, founded in 1782.
More than 110 departments and institutes operate within eight faculties. The University employs about 1100 lecturers, 400 researchers and other degree holders as well as numerous invited lecturers and practising specialists, including 34 members of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Approximately 1381 of the university's 21,171 students are foreigners, coming from 50 countries. The University issues about 70% of Hungary's engineering degrees.
Training courses are provided in five languages: Hungarian, English, German, French and Russian.
The ECTS credit system was introduced in 1995. This helps students to enroll in the student exchange program of the European Union, the Socrates (or Erasmus) program, and earn a double degree through the Top Industrial Managers for Europe network.
Contents
History
1635 – Archbishop Péter Pázmány, primate of Hungary, founds the University of Nagyszombat (today Trnava, Slovakia)
Late 18th century – The university moves to Buda and becomes the University of Buda.
1735 – The "Berg-Schola," the world's first institute of technology, was founded in Selmecbánya, Kingdom of Hungary (today Banská Štiavnica, Slovakia) in 1735. Many members of the first teaching staff of BME arrived from Selmecbánya.
1782 – Emperor Joseph II establishes the Institutum Geometricum as part of the Faculty of Liberal Arts at the University of Buda. The Institutum, the direct predecessor of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, is the first in Europe to award engineering degrees to students of land surveying, river control, and road construction.
1850 – The Institutum Geometricum merges with the Joseph College of Technology.
1856 – The merged institutions become the Royal Joseph Polytechnic.
1860 – Hungarian replaces Latin as the language of instruction.
1862 – Royal Joseph Polytechnic becomes the Royal Joseph University.
1872 – Royal Joseph University gains full autonomy and the right to issue engineering diplomas after five years of studies. It is among the first institutions in Europe, to train engineers on university level.
1901 – Royal Joseph University is entitled to confer the doctoral degree, "Doctor Rerum Technicarum."
1910 – The university moved to its current site near Gellért square (next to the Art Nouveau Hotel Gellért).
Faculties
At present the university has eight Faculties (founding date in parentheses):
Faculty of Civil Engineering (1782)
Civil engineering
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering (1871)
Mechanical engineering
Mechatronics engineering
Energy engineering
Industrial design engineering
Industrial Command Engineering
Faculty of Architecture (1873)
Architecture
Faculty of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology (1873)
Chemical engineering
Biochemical engineering
Environmental engineering
Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics (1949)
Electrical Engineering
Computer Science Engineering
Faculty of Transportation Engineering and Vehicle Engineering (1955)
Transportation engineering
Vehicle engineering
Logistics engineering
Faculty of Natural Sciences (1998*)
Mathematics
Physics
Computational and Cognitive Neuroscience
Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences (1998*)
Technical
Engineering management
Technical education
Economic
Applied economics
Business and management
International business
Regional and environmental economics
Social
Communication and media studies
The Faculty of Natural and Social Sciences was founded in 1987 and separated in 1998.
The organizational structure
The Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) is a public higher education institute operating as a central budgetary institution. Its founding regulation has been issued by the Minister of Human Resources. Its Organizational and operational conditions are summarized in its own regulation in accordance with laws.
The steering body of the university is the Senate. BME is divided into faculties.
The faculties in the order of their founding:
Faculty of Civil Engineering (ÉMK)
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering (GPK)
Faculty of Architecture (ÉPK)
Faculty of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology (VBK)
Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics (VIK)
Faculty of Transportation Engineering and Vehicle Engineering (KJK)
Faculty of Natural Sciences (TTK)
Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences (GTK)
Education, research, innovation and direct additional services are proceeded by the faculties. Work-sharing between the faculties are subject oriented both in the fields of education and that of technology. The organogram of BME is available here. The faculties consist of departments, institutes, research centres that are supported by deans offices and other units.
Governing is assisted by the Rectors Office and the Chancellors Office. There is a highly independent Group of integrated internal control.
Admissions
All Hungarians who pass the Hungarian secondary school matura with enough points are eligible for admission, as well as for anyone else in possession of an International Baccalaureate (again, with enough points).
As with all Hungarian universities, a tuition fee of around $1000 has to be paid each semester for the Hungarian program. No extra fee is required for Hungarians for whom it is their first university, unless they spend more than 13 semesters there.
The university offers extensive English language programs on all its faculties, at all levels of study (Preparatory Year, Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Arts, Master of Science, Doctor of Philosophy). The Tuition fees vary from €2000 - €4500 per semester.
6% of all students come from over fifty countries; the majority of the students in the English Program are from Azerbaijan, China, Pakistan, Kazakhstan and Jordan in the greatest numbers, and students from Malaysia, Ecuador and Saudi-Arabia are among the graduates.
Location
The university is located on the Buda side of the Danube between Szabadság Bridge and Petőfi Bridge and towards Rákóczi Bridge. This makes the university campus especially long and narrow: walking from one side of the university to the other can take as much as 20 minutes.
The Inner City of Budapest (Pest) is just across the river, about 10 minutes' walk by either of the bridges.
Famous alumni
Nobel laureates
Dénes Gábor (Dennis Gábor), inventor of holography (1971 Nobel Prize in Physics)
George Oláh, (1994 Nobel Prize in Chemistry)
Jenő Wigner (Eugene Wigner), (1963 Nobel Prize in Physics)
Ferenc Krausz, (2023 Nobel Prize in Physics)
Others
András Arató (Electrical engineer and model, known for the internet meme Hide the Pain Harold)
Aurel Vlaicu (Romanian Engineer known for making the first Aeroplane in Romania)
Donát Bánki (Co-inventor of the modern carburetor)
Pál Erdős (Mathematician)
Károly Ereky (Agricultural engineer, born Károly Wittmann, known as Karl Ereky, coined the notion: biotechnology in 1919)
Tibor Gallai (Mathematician)
Alfréd Hajós (Olympic champion swimmer)
Zoltan Hajos (Organic Chemist)
Alajos Hauszmann (Architect of the Buda Castle)
Csaba Horváth (Chemical Engineer, built the first high performance liquid chromatograph)
Imre Kacskovics (Immunologist and the Dean of the ELTE Faculty of Science)
Kálmán Kandó ("Father" of the AC powered electric locomotive, Rotary phase converter)
Tibor Kapu (astronaut)
Tódor Kármán (Theodore von Kármán, "Father" of super-sonic flight)
Dénes Kőnig (Mathematician)
Károly Kós (Architect of the Budapest Zoo and Botanical Garden)
Imre Makovecz (Architect, one of the most prominent proponents of organic architecture)
Sports
The university has one sports club, the Műegyetemi AFC, which played in the first 1901 Hungarian League season. The university hosted the IFIUS 2008 World Interuniversity Games in October.
National Technical Information Centre and Library
The National Technical Information Centre and Library at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME OMIKK) is the successor of two major libraries in Hungary.
The Central Library of BME
The library of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (then Joseph Polytechnics) was formally founded in 1848 when Baron József Eötvös, Minister of Religion and Public Education donated a book in five volumes that become the first item in the inventory of the library.
Since its foundation it moved with the university from Pest to the Buda Castle in 1854 and back to Pest in 1872. In 1882 it moved again, to the campus near the National Museum, now the campus of Faculty of Humanities of Eötvös Loránd University. In 1909 the Library was moved to a separated cathedral like building in the new Campus of BME. The building was designed by Samu Pécz, professor of architecture at the university. The central Aula connects the spacious, 16.5-meter (54 ft) wide reading room to the north, the multi floor storage facility to the west and the workrooms of library procedures to the south. The eastern facade is connected to the central building of the university with the 'Bridge of Sighs'. The architectural concept has been proven timeless.
Later on the storage capacity was enlarged with the introduction of compact storage technology, and adding a large capacity underground storage facility under the garden of the Campus.
Today a remote storage building near Budapest is also used.
In the beginning the library was directed by university professors. The first full-time director was appointed in 1936.
In the early years the library served only professors. It was opened for students in 1869, and for the general public in 1884.
In 1884 the first classification system of the library was elaborated and the first printed catalogue of the library was published by Vince Wartha, who was by the way professor of urban chemical technologies, dealing with construction materials, with gas production and water supply, and rector of university two times. In the following years extended editions of the printed catalogue were published and distributed to the departments and to other major libraries in the country. In 1936 the library introduced the index card system of catalogue.
The National Technical Information Centre and Library (OMIKK)
In 1883 Ágoston Trefort, minister of education opened the Technological Museum including a library consisting the “basic Hungarian and international literature dealing with industry”.
In 1889 the library was moved and merged with the library of Public Polytechnics. In 1921 the Institute of Technological and Material Testing was established, merging two institutions. With the integration, the Library of Technological Institute was formed. From 1923 the library was intensively developed by the direction of Géza Káplány. In 1949 the Library of Technology was formally merged with the Technical Documentation Centre. Since then the library started establishing liaison libraries in the country. In 1952 the name changed to National Technical Library. In 1956 the Library was moved into a representative building near the National Museum.
In 1982 with the introduction of electronic technologies and with the development of information exchange of cooperating libraries on multinational level the library took the name of National Technical Information Centre and Library. After several changes in the organization and supervision, in 2001, with the decision of the minister of education, most of the tasks, the staff and the whole collection of the National Technical Information Centre and Library were integrated into the Library of Budapest University of Technology and Economics.
BME OMIKK, the integrated library
After the integration of the two libraries the Main Reading Room were renovated and under it the Reading Room of Technical and Natural Sciences was created, three reading rooms in the central university building were formed, and a service tunnel connecting the library building with the underground storage facility and with the new reading rooms was constructed.
In 2011, following the erection of new university buildings in the new southern (Lágymányos) campus, a new service point of BME OMIKK was opened in building “I”.
University rank
The Budapest University of Technology and Economics ranked 250th out of 535 in mechanical engineering by QS 2017 world ranking.
It takes the 322nd place among the world's top 400 universities for engineering and technology, being the only university from Hungary that is listed in Quacquarelli Symonds ranking.
Times Higher Education ranked it as 1001+ in its 2020 world university rankings.
Controversies
Some students report delays in stipend payments or confusion about the status of their scholarship.The university processed personal data, including special categories of data unlawfully in connection with providing regular scholarship based on the applicants social status [1]. Budapest University of Technology and Economics was fined 8 000 000 HUF (22520 EUR) by the Hungarian data protection authority for non-compliance with the GDPR, with the decision published on February 24, 2021, and the fine officially imposed on December 9, 2020 [2]
Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) criticises EU’s poor communication amidst Horizon funding freeze in 2023 [3]
In 2024, over 1,000 BME employees (including the rector) signed petitions demanding substantial wage increases (~50%), citing low salaries that force lecturers to take on multiple jobs [4]
Students attending the freshman camp in 2024 of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) have shared troubling accounts of the harsh treatment they experienced. Reports from students described an atmosphere more akin to a military boot camp, with degrading practices, body searches, and even bathroom breaks measured with stopwatches.[5]
In Hungary, approximately one-third of students do not complete their higher education studies. This dropout rate is a significant concern and is influenced by a combination of factors including the competitive nature of the Hungarian education system, early selection processes, and rigid structures. The Hungarian education system also faces criticism for its focus on standardized testing and its impact on student well-being. In the fields of IT and Physics, the dropout rate is among the highest, reaching even 50-65%, which is quite shocking. [6]