Pázmány Péter Catholic University (PPKE) (Hungarian: Pázmány Péter Katolikus Egyetem (PPKE)) is a private university in and near Budapest, Hungary, belonging to the Catholic Church and recognized by the state. While PPKE takes its name after an institution founded in 1635, it forms a modern, split-off limb from one of Hungary's oldest and most prestigious institutions of higher education, that has expanded further in the second half of the 20th century.
The Faculty of Theology was established by archbishop Péter Pázmány, as part of a new university, in Nagyszombat, the Kingdom of Hungary (today Trnava, Slovakia) in 1635 (the original university church is now the Cathedral of Trnava). This university was transferred to the present-day Budapest in 1777 and named after Pázmány in 1921. In 1950, the university was renamed to Eötvös Loránd University, but in the same year, the government split the Faculty of Theology off the university to form the independent Theological Academy as an anti-Church measure. After the fall of Communism, the Theological Academy was expanded with a faculty of humanities to form the Pázmány Péter Catholic University, which was accredited by the state in 1993.
The university is located in two cities: the Rectors' Office, the Faculty of Theology, the Faculty of Law, the Faculty of Information Technology, and the Postgraduate Institute of Canon-Law are located in Budapest. The campus of the Vitéz János Faculty of Teaching is in Esztergom, just across the Esztergom Basilica. The Faculty of Humanities operated a campus in Piliscsaba, in the vicinity of Budapest from 1994 until end-2020, after which it relocated its departments and courses to Budapest.
The university has several research groups and institutes. One of the most important international research programmes of the university is the Syro-Hungarian Archeological Mission, which does the restoration of Margat's crusader fortress.
Nearly 8.000 students attend the university, enrolled in several Bachelor, Master, and PhD programmes.
International cooperations include the Erasmus programme and bilateral agreements. It was named in 2009 as one of the most active members of the Erasmus programme. It is a co-establisher of the International Research Universities Network and has strong connections with Radboud University Nijmegen, Catholic University of Leuven, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogota, Saint Louis University and University of Notre Dame.
Contents
Rectors
1992–1998 Msgr. Dr. Ferenc Gál
1998–2003 Msgr. Prof. Dr. Péter Erdő
2003–2011 Msgr. Prof. Dr. György Fodor
2011–2019 Msgr. Prof. Dr. Szabolcs Anzelm Szuromi O.Praem
since 2019 Géza Kuminetz
Great chancellors
1992–2005 Most rev. Dr. István Seregély, Archbishop of Eger
2005– Most rev. Em. Card. Prof. Dr. Péter Erdő DSc, Primate of Hungary, Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest
Academics
Faculties
The university has five faculties and two institutes.
The Faculty of Humanities was established by the Hungarian Catholic Bishops' Conference on 30 January 1992. The government of Hungary accepted it on 25 May 1993. It has two locations in Budapest. It was located in the town of Piliscsaba from 1994 to 2020 after which the premises were handed to the state under a barter agreement. The campus was created from a Soviet barrack, on 220,000 m². As it is situated in a nature reserve, only pavilion-like buildings were allowed to be built which did not interfere with the landscape's harmony. Its buildings were designed by the group of Imre Makovecz and it has become an architectural landmark. The now-abandoned campus has a train station (since 1995) and a bus stop (since 1996); it is accessible from Budapest centre in less than an hour. Most of its students commuted on a daily basis, but it also had dormitories.
Cardinal Pázmány established the university in Nagyszombat on 12 May 1635. It was approved by Emperor Ferdinand II on 8 October in the same year the inauguration ceremony took place on 13 November 1635. The theological faculty is now located at Veres Pálné u. 24, Budapest H-1053.
Because of its Jesuit links, the newly opened university was based on the Official Plan for Jesuit Education, or Ratio studiorum, which had been laid down on 8 January 1599. Pázmány was also influenced by Roman and Austrian structures of higher education.
The Faculty of Theology first moved to Buda and then to Pest. It was separated from the rest of the Pázmány Péter Science University in 1950 by the state and was able to continue her mission under the name of Roman Catholic Central Theological Academy. The authorization of the institute to give an academic degree in Sacred Theology (baccalaureatus, licentiatus, laureatus [doctoratus]) in the name of the Holy See during this time remained, while the diploma was also recognized by the state.
The classical five (baccalaureatus) plus two (licentiatus) plus one (doctoratus) years (the last two together is recognized as a PhD instruction by the state) Sacred Theology teaching program which is recognized by the Holy See is built on twelve departments:
Collegium Hungaricum
The Collegium Hungaricum (officially Collegium Hungaricum Lovaniense, the former Home Cardinal Mindszenty) is a house for Hungarian university students, researchers and teachers in the city of Leuven (25 km from Brussel), at the Blijde Inkomstraat 18. The owner of the building is the Hungarian Province of the Jesuit Order, but the maintainer is the Pázmány Péter Catholic University.
Research
The goal of the Hungarian Bionic Vision Center is to restore vision of visually impaired patients to the maximum extent and to improve the quality of their lives through using medical and technological aids. They run programmes to study medical and engineering technologies.
Homepage: lataskozpont.itk.ppke.hu
The RobotLab is to apply ideas inspired by Biology using Information Technologies. How is it possible to design better prosthesis? Can neurobiology help to develop new remote control robots for helicopters? Can a biped be taught to walk in a similar way as we learned our balancing and moving patterns? What is the functional connection between visual and tactile sensing? These are some questions which are addressed by the Rotob Lab.
Homepage: robotlab.itk.ppke.hu Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine
The Jedlik Laboratories is a science-education-technology center where the advantages of multidisciplinary work is emphasized in emerging fields of science and technology. In the beginning the key areas were info-bionics and sensor-computing, telepresence and language technologies. Nano–bio technology, VLSI IC design are other areas of research.
Other topics of the center's research are life sciences, in particular the neurosciences, genetics and immunology as well as the field of nanoscale engineering and molecular bionics, nanoscale technologies, sensor-computing, telepresence, integrated communication and ad-hoc mobile networks, bio-compatible interfaces, as well as "smart" energ0y saving devices and integrated nano–micro systems.
The Jedlik Laboratories is organized within the Faculty of Information Technology in cooperation with the institutes of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS), namely the Computer and Automation Research Institute, the Research Institute for Experimental Medicine, the Neurobiology Research Unit at the Semmelweis University of Medicine of the HAS, the Research Institute of Technical Physics and Material Science, the Research Institute of Psychology, the Institute of Enzymology of the Biology Research Center of the HAS, the Richter Gedeon Co., the Ericsson Hungary Ltd., and a few SMEs. The cooperating international research laboratories are listed in the International relations section.
Notable people
Honorary doctors
Max van der Stoel, the first High Commissioner on National Minorities of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (24 November 1999)
Urbano Navarrete SJ, cardinal, professor of Canon Law and former rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University (2.May 2000))
Paul Poupard, cardinal, former president of the Pontifical Council for Culture and also of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue (1 March 2001)
Bartholomew I, archbishop of Constantinople, Ecumenical Patriarch (25 April 2001)
Franciszek Macharski, cardinal, former Archbishop of Kraków (22. September 2002.)
Alfred Bayer, President of the Hanns Seidel Foundation (22. September 2002.)
Astrik L. Gabriel O.Praem., Director of the Medieval Institute at the University of Notre Dame from 1952 to 1975 (2003.)
Stephen Privett SJ, President of the University of San Francisco (2004.)
James Crawford, Whewell Professor of International Law, Chair of the Faculty of Law at the University of Cambridge (21. January 2005.)
Lorenzo Ornaghi, Rector of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (15. November 2005.)
Gerardo Marín, Professor, Associate Provost of the University of San Francisco (2005.)
László Szabó SJ, Professor Emeritus of the Saint Joseph University (2005.)
Faculty and staff
Kathleen E. Dubs, Old and Middle English, medieval literature scholar; her lectures on Tolkien revived interest in him in academic circles
Tamás Freund, academician, neurobiologist, The Brain Prize laureate
Ida Fröhlich, historian, made the first translation of the corpus of the Dead Sea Scrolls into Hungarian
Rózsa Hoffmann, Secretary of State for Education
András Jakab, Constitutional lawyer, Schumpeter Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, fellow researcher at Centro de Estudios Políticos y Constitucionales (2008–2010)
István Jelenits Sch.P., theologian, writer, Széchenyi Prize laureate
János Lackfi, poet, writer, literary translator
John Lukacs, historian, author of "Five Days in London", "May 1940" and "A New Republic"
Balázs Major, Arabist, archeologist, historian, head of the Syro-Hungarian Archeological Mission, and the excavation of the Crusader Fortress of Margat
Miklós Maróth, classical philologist, Arabist, academician, vice-president of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, honorary president of the Union Académique Internationale
Balázs Mezei, academician, philosopher, literary critic
Thomas Molnar, philosopher, historian, political theorist, author of "Utopia, The Perennial Heresy" and "The Decline of the Intellectual"
Alumni
Pázmány alumni number 26,000.
Tibor Benedek (2005) – Olympic, European and World champion waterpolo player
Miklós Both (2008) – musician, composer, ethnographist
Andrew (Andor) Fabinyi, Hungarian-born Australian publisher
Gergely Gulyás (2004) – MP, deputy chairman, Committee for Human rights, Minorities, Civic and Religious Affairs of the Hungarian Parliament
Péter Harrach (1995) – former deputy speaker of the Hungarian Parliament
Edith Farkas (1921-1993), Hungarian-born New Zealand meteorologist who measured ozone levels
Eszter Vitályos (1979-), Hungarian politician and lawyer, spokesperson of the Hungarian government
Máté Kocsis (2004) – mayor, 8. District of Budapest
András Koltay (2002) – member of the Media Council
Karolina Kosztrihán – radio-host, ClassFM
Tamás Gergely Kucsera (2000) – former presidential chief-adviser, Hungarian Academy of Sciences
István Madarász – film director, "Hungary – World of Potentials"
Péter Magyar (2004) – Prime Minister of Hungary (2026-), president of the Tisza Party
László Mécs – alpinist, member of the first Hungarian team which managed to arrive on the top of the Mount Everest