Although economics education has a history going back to the reign of Maria Theresia and despite the fact that its  position has significantly strengthtened by the 20st centruty, the future of the subject has been a bone of contention ever since the 19th century. The majority supported the establishment of an independent University of Economics, however this was only partially materialized in 1920 with foundation of the partiallly independent Faculty of Economics. The faculty struggled with financial and placement-related issues, and the establishment became part of the József Nádor Technical and Economics University in 1934. This redesign involving a number of academic institutions (Technical University; Faculty of Economics; College of Veterinary; and College of Mining and Forestry) seemed to be succesful. Although the global economic recession resulted in the decrease of the number of students studying economics in the 1930s, from the 1940s on student enrollment figures  started to sharply increase owing to the economic recovery following the world wars. The Hungarian University of Economics was only opened in 1948, but the nature of the institution changed following the communist takeover, not in line with its original purpose.