On 31 January 2024, a joint press event was held to announce the Arconic-Copper Mill Products Ltd. Zsuzsanna Varga, Managing Director of the University, Dr. András Cser-Palkovics, Mayor of Székesfehérvár, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the University and Dr. habil. Éva Hajnal, Vice Dean of Research at the Alba Regia Faculty of Engineering at Óbuda University, that the Arconic Foundation will continue to support the university in 2023. The company supports the development of technical higher education for a long time. It donated 30,000 US dollars to produce special course materials and expand the equipment park in the 2023/2024 academic year in line with new industrial trends.
Mayor Dr. András Cser-Palkovics stressed that this support reflects the intention to support engineering education and to give young people a chance. He stressed that the university’s funding is secured through state subsidies, and mentioned that this year’s city budget contributes to the running and operating costs. The mayor of Székesfehérvár said that the municipality could do this through local taxes paid by companies. He thanked Arconic-Köfém Kft. for their support in training future workers and for being partners in the city’s fight to keep more people in the city.
Zsuzsanna Varga, Managing Director of Arconic-Köfém Mill Products Hungary Kft., who also represented the Arconic Foundation, emphasized that she is “proud to have been able to cooperate with the University of Óbuda for more than 5 years.” She emphasized that during this time they have provided more than 250,000 dollars in support for the education and training of the future generation, who will also become the leaders of the future through their engineering and management work. She noted that it is a traditional company that “prides itself on its roster of highly skilled professionals with whom it produces a quality product”.
Nagyné Dr. habil. Éva Hajnal, Vice Dean for Research at the Alba Regia Faculty of Technology, Óbuda University, highlighted the changing role of universities in her speech. Universities in the Middle Ages disseminated knowledge by sharing and reading the works of the great scholars of the time, while the students absorbed it, hence the name student. In today’s universities, the process of knowledge sharing has been replaced by active participation, where students learn not only the subject knowledge, but also the engineering approach, the way of thinking and, through practical training, the necessary competences from the lecturers. The Vice-Dean stressed that they are working to build close links with industry to keep knowledge and tools up to date through input from the economy.
Dr. Károly Széll, Associate Professor at the Alba Regia University of Óbuda’s Faculty of Technology, gave a presentation on the developments so far, the outstanding achievements of the students (successes at the Fanuc Olympics, robotics world championships and European championships) and highlighted that the 2023 grant will be used to “focus on the development of special industrial courses, including robot programming, PLC (programmable logic controller) programming and security engineering.”
