Barta János was born in 1901 in a farming family. He completed his university studies in Budapest. During his time at Eötvös College his biggest inspiration was János Horváth the prominent literature scholar. In 1923 he graduated  with a  teacher degree in Hungarian and German, then between 1925-27 he was the student of Collegicum Hungaricum  in Berlin. After his return to Hungary he started to publish books and studies on 19th century writers such as Imre Madách and József Katona. In 1950 he became professor at József Eötvös University, Budapest and from 1951 at the Lajos Kossuth University of Debrecen. In January  of 1957 he was appointed rector of the Lajos Kossuth University. During his time as  rector he focused on protecting the university's autonomy and the reestablishment of departments of western languages. After only six month in the rector position the Hungarian Government removed him from the role and appointed a new rector without any consultation with the University Senate. 

Three generations of the Dohy/Göllner family contributed to the training of hundreds of agricultural engineers, all three of whom had ties to Debrecen, Eastern Hungary. Today, Wikipedia articles also preserve their memory and activities.

- (Senior) János Göllner (1871–1942), a mechanical engineer, fled with his family from Kolozsvár to Debrecen after the Treaty of Trianon (1920), where he headed the technical department of the Agricultural Academy.

- János Dohy (earlier Göllner) (1905–1990) learned at the secondary schools from the Piarists in Debrecen, then graduated as an agricultural engineer from the Debrecen-Pallag Academy of Agriculture in 1926 (phytopathologist).

- János Dohy (Junior) (1934–2002) agricultural engineer, university professor, and researcher of animal breeding and husbandry were related to his activity. He was a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS)

The scholarship of early modern disputations has focused on printed theses, given their status as one of the most prevalent forms of printed material during that historical period. Despite the paucity of extant minutes transcribing discussions of these theses, this article posits that such manuscript sources merit consideration when researching this topic. This article explores the potential of handwritten documents, such as university records and notebooks of Hungarian students, to enhance our understanding of disputation practices in Central Europe during the period between 1580 and 1660. A comparison of printed disputations characteristic of Protestant Europe with manuscripts of Catholic and Jesuit provenance reveals a divergent function of scholarly debates. This latter group of disputations was less focused on the individual performance of the respondent and served more as a method of recapitulation in everyday education. In contrast, Protestant examples illustrate that disputations played a pivotal role in the dissemination of scientific knowledge and expertise. As professors and students transferred information from their respective homelands to university centres and vice versa, the medium of disputations underwent a transition from print to manuscript or vice versa.

There were close ties between Hungarian Protestants and the universities in the Republic of the Seven United Provinces (now the Netherlands), particularly with the Academie van Vrieslandt in the Frisian town of Franeker. By chance, a shipment of books intercepted by customs in Olomouc has been preserved, which sheds more light on the theological ideas and contacts of István Szathmári Paksi (1719–1791), who studied in Franeker in 1743 and was bishop of the church in Debrecen from 1785 to 1790.

The study presents the first two years of the summer university of the Elizabeth University of Pécs in Keszthely and the holiday home built for the students. The Italianist professor Jenő Kastner's relations with Italy are analyzed, highlighting their significance in the organization of the summer university courses. It provides an overview of the Italian-Hungarian diplomatic and cultural agreements, which fundamentally determined the concept of the courses and lectures of the Keszthely summer university, as well as the milestones of close cooperation with Italy. With the help of archival sources, we reconstruct the activities of Dr. Jenő Kastner, the head of the Italian Department of the Elizabeth University of Pécs, in Pécs, and the circumstances of the establishment of the holiday home.

The College of Physical Education was established at the end of 1925, thanks to the support of Minister Kuno Count Klebelsberg as the further development of the course of the National Gymnastics Association, which had started in 1868. At that time, it was placed in the building of the Civil School Teacher Training College (Paedagogium) on Győri Street in Buda, where it still operates today, with gradual expansions. Thanks to its excellent teaching staff, the new institution quickly rose to international status. Although the years of war and the communist dictatorship set back its development, it was elevated to university status in 1975, and then slowly regained its international reputation. In 2000, during the reorganization of higher education, it temporarily lost its independence, which it regained in 2014. Soon, the largest development in its history began, which is now nearing its end.

The Hungarian Historical Society and its South-Transdanubian Group organised a conference, titled ’Chapters from the history of education in Hungary’ in Mohács, Hungary, between 13 and 15 August 2025. It was at this conference that a lecture was given on the foundation of colleges that reviewed the evolution and transformation of the institutional network until 1990, with some references to subsequent reorganisations.

No such lecture can provide a complete picture, consequently, it mainly focused on the major junctions relying on bibliographic data. Although the principal topic was the evolution of the college network, the changes affecting universities also had to be mentioned since, during the transformation, integration and foundation attempts, such universities gathered up the colleges eventually often transforming them into university faculties. The first part of the three-part study reviews the fundamental changes until Act III of 1961 on the education system of the Hungarian People’s Republic was enacted; the second part examines the motivations behind the quantitative growth of the institutional network, while the third part showcases the changes in West-Transdanubia through the expansion of the higher education institutions (university, teacher training college) in Pécs, with a particular focus on Zala County, where it was impossible to establish an independent higher education institution.

At the end of the 20th century, information technology initiated revolutionary changes. The first inter-university networks, established by American universities, rapidly transformed the internet into a global system, soon reaching Europe and countries behind the Iron Curtain. In Hungary, higher education institutions were the first to recognize the opportunities presented by this new technology, and in the early 1990s, they commenced the development of internationally competitive networks. At that time, Debrecen was home to several independent universities and colleges, which set the objective of creating a unified IT infrastructure. This development was facilitated by state funding and the lifting of the Eastern technology embargo, which enabled the adoption of advanced Western network devices and protocols. By the autumn of 1994, a city-wide optical fiber backbone network had been completed, providing high-speed data transmission between campuses using FDDI technology. The implemented system integrated 12 kilometers of optical cable, more than twenty connected buildings, and over one thousand computers, offering a bandwidth of 100 Mbit/s—ten times the capacity of contemporary Ethernet networks. Initially, the network provided essential services such as internet access, email, and shared printing, while also laying the groundwork for future integrated systems, including academic and administrative records. The city network, named UDNet, thus represented not only a significant technological innovation but also established a stable foundation for the long-term development of information technology at the University of Debrecen.

A new era of higher education in Debrecen began in 2000 – decades after the 1912 founded state university was split into several institutions in 1950 – the Debrecen University was established from four independent institutions, offering the broadest range of study programs in the country with five university faculties, three college faculties, nine institutes and three associated institutions. This study reviews the preliminary steps which had been taken to prepare for the institutional integration within the framework of the Debrecen Universitas Association and the Debrecen University Association, describes the circumstances surrounded the failure of the direct integration of church institutions, and details the events connected to the launch of the new university, also presenting the recollections of those involved in the university leadership at the time. The success of the Debrecen University integration was based on its special characteristics, such as broad-based leadership, close cooperation of rectors elected for a short period from different fields of science, highly decentralized management, the establishment of the Medical and Health Sciences Center  and  the Agricultural Sciences Center – which combined high-level clinical work and agricultural activities, respectively, with the function of related faculties –, and an infrastructural investment program that enabled advances in the majority of educational areas and focused on support of scientific research. Based on the structural decisions, internal integration processes were launched for consolidated operation of informatics, the libraries and language departments, and in the activities of specialty coordination centers, to facilitate cooperation in educational programs and research work.  A constructive and harmonious relationship had been developed with the newly formed university-level students’ union and, within the framework of a collective agreement with the institution's employees. The cooperation agreement with the city of Debrecen, the interconnection with the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and participation in the founding of the European University Association were of decisive importance in the university's external relations. The joint works in developing the identity of the University of Debrecen, the creation of symbols and brand images linked to the historical Debrecen Reformed College resulted in trust-based cooperation and breaking down of barriers between the integrating communities of scholars, researchers, students, and employees.

The quarter-century commemoration refers to the fact that the University of Debrecen started operating as universitas officially, i.e. according to laws implemented by the state. The reunification actually took place in 2000, therefore, now is indeed the time to commemorate the re-establishment of the unified University of Debrecen. However, prior to this, certain events had already taken place that led directly to the establishment of a unified university.  But to where and when can we put the initiation of this process? Can we link it to a certain date? The answer is yes. It may also be interesting to note that these lines are written by someone who has been involved from the very beginning and has been able to work on the re-establishment of the various 'universities' operating in different parts of our city. 

The Georgikon, founded in 1797 in Keszthely by the Festetics family, the agricultural college established in 1818 in Mosonmagyaróvár by Prince Albert Casimir of Saxony-Teschen, and later the one founded in 1868 in Pallag by the city of Debrecen, all played a significant role in advancing Hungarian agriculture throughout the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. These academies were shut down in 1948–1949, following the land reform of 1945. However, with the reorganization of socialist agriculture and the push for collectivization, it became necessary to restart agricultural education. This led to Presidential Council Decree No. 9 in 1953, which authorized the reestablishment of regional agricultural academies. The process was swift, and the academy in Debrecen was the first to reopen − ironically turning the last into the first. Acting on the instructions of then-Minister of Agriculture Ferenc Erdei, a committee was set up to determine whether the half-finished agricultural secondary school in Pallag − damaged during the war − or the one on Böszörményi Road would be more suitable for reopening the academy. In hindsight, the committee’s decision to choose the Böszörményi Road location proved wise, as it offered vast development potential. This potential was successfully realized by István Bencsik, who − based on Decree No. 35 − oversaw the transformation of the institution into a university-level college. Thanks to prioritized government investment, the new institution became a true jewel of Hungarian agricultural education.

Book review by Ferenc Sipos  of the book of Szabó Dániel's The Ethics of Arany János 1958:  The Church and Social Response to my Pastoral Training Thesis 2017-2024

A Kovács I. Gábor vezetésével működő csoport elitkutatási anyaggyűjtésének ötödik (és egyben az egyetemi tanárok életrajzi adattárainak negyedik) kötetét veheti kezébe a kedves olvasó. Mindegyikről korábban a Gerundium folyóiratban is megjelent recenzió.

The 30th anniversary of the Trans-Tisza Plant Protection Forum (30th TNF) was jointly organised by the Faculty of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences of the University of Debrecen (University of Debrecen) and the Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania (EMTE) on 15-16 October 2025 in Târgu Mureș. The Plant Protection Forum, which has been held continuously for three decades (raised to an international level every three years during the period), will be held annually from 2025. Consequently, the 30th TNF was also the 12th IPPS (International Plant Protection Symposium). In 1868, higher education for farmers was launched in the Trans-Tisza region to create the best, always modern agriculture. To help with this, we started the series of TNF (IPPS) events in 1996, the aim of which is to combine the results of modern science with Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and the plant protection of organic farming systems (Eco-Farming), which continue to be offered in the city of Debrecen in the future.