Student organisations, clubs and associations are always a distinctive and often dominant feature of universities in Hungary and abroad. Their purpose, and sometimes their function, is to cater to students' needs and areas of professional activity not covered by regular education and/or not covered in an orthodox way. The structure of higher education in Hungary, and in particular medical education, is rigid, partly due to the rules of the discipline, with lectures, seminars and practicals organised within a strictly regulated framework, which many believe does not provide sufficient scope to fully meet the dynamically changing needs of students, and thus the latest professional trends and technologies, as well as societal issues. Furthermore, the pressures of a busy curriculum and lack of time often do not allow for immediate reflection, experience, and processing of the challenges of our rapidly changing world. The organizations promoting students’ participation in research and various student-initiated organizations serve to fill this apparent gap and to meet the needs of students and teachers. The most prominent of these, in our opinion, is the Sántha Kálmán Faculty College of Advanced Studies, which has existed at the University of Debrecen and its predecessors for 35 years in an ever-changing form, constantly reborn like a phoenix. In this reminiscence, we are summarising the history of the founding and activities of the Sántha Kálmán Faculty College of Advanced Studies, relying on our own memories and experiences, archived documents, and the detailed accounts of former and current members.