János Bodnár as  professor and chair of the Institute of Medical Chemistry taught not only the first year medical students but, as a subject lecturer– owing to the lack of faculty of natural sciences – at the faculty of humanities he also took part in natural sciences teacher training of the teacher candidates. In addition, he also offered courses to those students who intended to obtain a doctoral degree.

In the academic year of 1943–44 he served as rector of the University of Debrecen, which was hard work because of the wartime climate and existence. In the following academic year, 1944 – 1945, he again took part in the management of the university as deputy rector since the newly appointed rector, János Hankiss got stuck in Budapest  because of the war events. He concentrated on the temporary reconstruction of the war damages and he endeavoured to ensure the availability of the facilities of education.

János Hankiss started his academic career at the University of Debrecen in 1920. In the distinguished community of his peers who taught at our university between the two world wars, János Hankiss indubitably belonged to the top professionals. If a university’s academic rank is determined not only by its local or national prestige but also by its international recognition and appreciation, then in this latter frame of reference it was perhaps Professor Hankiss who did most to put Debrecen on the map for Europe and beyond. Indeed, he would share his knowledge not only within the confines of the University: he was a popularizer of scholarship and of the literary culture who was ready to move beyond the narrow limits of his immediate professional field and to address a larger audience. Besides, his name is also associated with the still extant quarterly periodical Debreceni Szemle [Debrecen Review] and Debrecen University’s International Summer School.

In the second half of the 18^th century, a special educational institution functioned in the city of Pest: the city managed a law vocational school for 15 years, where the professor who was applied by the city mainly taught Roman law and canon law. The study describes the history of the school with special attention to the life, teaching and scientific activity of the only professor of the school, Paulus Lucas Perghold of Carinthian origin.

Turkish studies started in Europe later than Arabic and Persian studies. While research into Arabic was mainly justified by the underlying theological context, and Persian was attractive for its rich literary heritage, studying Turks and the Turkish language was motivated by two factors. One was the ever- growing political and commercial significance of the Ottoman Empire in Europe, the other being the Christian mission. This article gives a short survey of the theme and treats only the major Turkish grammars and dictionaries that appeared in print. Having reviewed the first rudimentary attempts at describing Turkish in the 16th century, the first European Turkish grammar written by Megiser (1612) is treated, then Jakab Harsányi Nagy’s conversation book (1642) is the subject of the next analysis. Afterwards, a scrutiny of 17th-century French, Italian, and English dictionaries and grammars are analysed (du Ryer, Molino, Maggio, Bernardo de Parigi, Pietro d’Albavilla, Mascisci, Seaman, Vaughan). In the following, Turkish studies in Vienna in the 17th century are dwelt on, with a special emphasis on the works of Meninski and Podestà, two major figures of Turkish research at that time. After a short listing of a few dictionaries and grammars published in Leipzig, the foundation of the Oriental Academy in Vienna is the next topic of the paper. Finally, Turkish Bible translations are listed and a few conclusions close the article.

In the second half of the 18th century, there appeared a growing interest in  Hungarian scientific discourse pertaining to the ‘sciences of man’, and especially psychology. Issues such as the place and function of the soul, its impact on the human body and the nature of mental disorders surfaced in the medical, philosophical and anthropological treatises of the age, whereas the treatment of the mentally ill posed new challenges and demanded answers hitherto unaddressed by medical authorities. However, in medical education, individual courses on psychiatry appeared relatively late, owing to the lack of an institutional background that would have provided the necessary amount of empirical cases and a training ground for physicians. In the Habsburg Monarchy, the first plans to the teaching of psychiatry were proposed only in the 1840s by the leading physicians of the principal asylums established in Vienna (1784) and Prague (1790). Nevertheless, psychological knowledge surfaced in medical education, taught as part of courses on physiology, pathology, medical police, and forensic medicine. As for psychological knowledge, these courses offered the basic outlines of the cognitive faculties, the concepts of feeling and volition, as well as the most common disorders of the soul. The article compares the curricula and textbooks of the three leading medical faculties of the Habsburg Monarchy, the universities of Vienna, Pest, and Prague. The main argument is that even though practical courses were introduced well into the nineteenth century, psychology – as a principally theory-based discipline – was already considered an important ‘auxiliary science’ in medical education.

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.

The work and professional activity of the two recently departed and fondly remembered librarians - Olga  Gomba  and Klára Koltay,  - deservedly mark the 30 year period, which we can definitely label as genuine transition. Not only the emergence of computers had a huge impact, but it has also brought paradigm shifting into the flow of  work as well as into the librarians' professional approach. It was in the early 1990s that the higher education libraries reached a position from where it was possible to seriously consider purchasing integrated library systems and replace their card catalogs with online catalogs. 

The Hungarian Rectors’ Conference was established in 1988 by the rectors of 19 universities in the spirit of intensifying self-organization and representation of the interests of higher education. HRC undertook and played a decisive role in the change of our higher education, in consolidating its autonomy and social role, as well as in the preparation and implementation of the first Higher Education Act. The framework of its operation, the impact and effectiveness of its activities were further shaped partly by its own aspirations and partly by the frameworks provided or limited by the current government. Recently, the role and weight of HRC both in the radically modified domestic and the changing authoritative international higher education space has sharply decreased, although its active role would be important for our institutions, science and society: the voice of universities must be heard and recognized everywhere.

1959 was an important year for pedagogy education in Hungary because this was the year that saw the beginning of pedagogy higher education start in eleven institutions of the country. These institutions started out as anonymous, and none of them were named after prominen cultural and/or  historical Hungarian figures. The  ministry wanted to rectify this shortcoming as early as 1959/1960, therefore they organized a dedicated director’s session to discuss potential eponyms for each of the institutions. As a follow- up, the Pedagogy Training Division of the ministry requested the directors of the institutions in early 1960 to provide a brief justification for their name selection. The Teacher Training Institution in Nyíregyháza chose József Eötvös who was the most prominent benefactor of Hungarian public education, and a dedicated supporter of the development of teacher training. In this paper we present the invitation from the ministry and the response to this call from the director of the Teacher Training Institution in Nyíregyháza. Although the naming process was stalled in 1960, we believe that it is still worthwhile to acknowledge the intent that was not realized because it shows the will of the directors in Nyíregyháza to carry legacy and nurture traditions.

The database presents the list of students of two Hungarian gymnasiums from the 16th and 17th centrury. These details have been largely unknown to date and they help to complement the information we have of the Protestant peregrination from Hungary. A large portion of the peregrines who attended the two institutions continued their education at one of the universities in Germany. Therefore, the informaton presented here provide an important contribution and reveal some of the peregrations paths of the 16th and 17th century.

Following its establishment in Germany, the Budapest Philological Society, which was active for seven decades between 1874 and 1948, brought together specialists dealing with classical philology and modern philology.  Among members were ancient studies and modern languages and literaries educating professors and teachers, who were interested in these studies seriously. All the specialists published articles in the Universal Philological Bulletin, which was the journal of this society.
The study presents the managment of the society with the exact dates, mainly by general meeting records. The society had honorary members from Hungarian and foreign specialists, the best known is Achille Ratti, later pope XI. Pius.

In the history of domestic vocational education in agriculture,  the year 2018 has recorded itself onto the pages of history’s golden book with two significant anniversaries. Mosonmagyarovar celebrated the bicentenary of its birth and Debrecen celebrated its existence of a century and a half. These  two higher education institutions were called to life by different reasons. While Ovar opened its gates to a private initiative, in Debrecen the local farmer society was the driving force with the binding precondition to which was connected tightly to have the mother tongue education accepted by the Viennese court. The time proved afterwards that the education in Hungarian language did not go to the detriment of expertise at none of the institutions. It must be acknowledged that in the field of vocational training, Magyarovar was the one which gave the first large faculty of teachers but soon Debrecen outgrew itself to the acropolis of vocational training too. The Ministry of Agriculture solved the incidental differences of standards by switching teachers. Owing to this, some professor-individualities had the chance to teach at both places. In our compilation – as a sample – we selected a few meaningful personalities with great authority who are claimed to have by both university faculties.

Review of the book Csizi István-Kovács Zsuzsa and Utasi Csilla

Book review by P. Szabó Béla: HUNGARICA IN DER DISSERATIONSSAMMLUNG DES NÜRNBERGER NATURFORSCHERS

CHRISTOPH JACOB TREW (1695‒1769) KATALOG 1582‒1765, author Ádám Hegyi

Book review by Szepessyné Judik Dorottya: Students of the Higher Education Institutions of Rozsnyó 1814-1852. Author: László Szögi

Book review by Alex Durovics about the book of László Szögi "Students of Vojvodina at the Hungarian Royal Universities and Colleges 1736-1850"

Book review by Béla Surányi about the book of Tenk Antal: " The Role of the Agricultural Academy of Mosonmagyaróvár in the 200 years of Development of our Agricultural History (1818 -2018)

This piece of writing looks back to the symbols of the University of Debrecen which are also in use today, emphasizing that the finials on top of the ”gerundiums”, the chains and medals of the dean and rector were made more than 100 years ago: they were made of bronze of cannon which were taken for loot in World War I, recalling that several students and educators of the university fought and died to defend the homeland.

The first clinic of urology  was established in Budapest in 1920, with Géza Illyés serving as its first professor and chair. Urology has been an independent subject of study at the medical faculty of Péter Pázmány University and later at Semmelweis University since 1921. Illyés’ s activity was highly respected internationally, and by 1939 more than a 100 visitors came to the clinic from the USA and another 100 visitors came from other countries. After the World War II, owing to the outstanding professors and staff, the department still plays an important role in the development of urology in Europe. The clinic with its educational, scientific and clinical work still has an important role in the European urological map.