I. PREAMBLE

1. Pursuant to Act No. LII of 1999, with effect from 1 January 2000, also considering their predecessor institutions, the 214 year old University of Veterinary Medicine, the 80 year old Gödöllő University of Agricultural Sciences, the 147 year old University of Horticulture and Food Industry, the 83 year old Jászberény Teacher Training College and the 120 year old Ybl Miklós Technical College, as the legal successors of the founding institutions of higher education, formed with ten faculties the

    

   SZENT ISTVÁN UNIVERSITY,

   with its center in GÖDÖLLŐ.

   Following the decision of the University Council, as of 1 September 2003, the Gyöngyös Faculty of Economics and Agriculture, pursuant to Act No. XXXVIII of 2003 amending the Act on Higher Education, became an independent institution of higher education by the name of Károly Róbert College. Under Government Decree No. 108/2003 (VII.22.) amending Government Decree No. 209/1999 (XII.26.) listing the faculties of institutions of higher education, the University's three faculties located in Buda (Faculty of Food Science, Faculty of Horticultural Science and the Faculty of Landscape Architecture, Protection and Development) continued their operation within the organization of the Budapest University of Economics and Public Administration.

2. After the above organizational changes, the mission of the six faculties of Szent István University continues to be

   -to create, maintain and develop scientific knowledge through research activities in the scientific and professional fields defined upon its foundation, which are constantly expanding through the University's continuous development, and through its higher education activities, to transfer this knowledge to future generations of intellectuals;

   - to promote the development of human resources in the professional areas practiced by it and the practical application of the results of Hungarian and universal sciences;

   - by applying the most up-to-date information and methods, to pay special attention to rural development and the training of professionals required in rural areas.

3. Szent István University, as an autonomous institution of higher education, within its general mission outlined above, realizes the following aims, responsibilities and obligations:

   (a) by applying the up-to-date training system, the departments and divisions, curricular programs and teaching methods, the professionally and scientifically accomplished educators and researches of the university and college faculties ensure that students are able to gain new knowledge in accordance with their background, abilities and specific field of interest;

   (b) through its scientific and professional environment the University enables its students to improve their basic knowledge of the scientific developments and practices of their chosen field, thereby becoming valuable intellectual members of society as soon as possible after the completion of their studies;

   (c) by realizing integrated self-motivated training, research and professional advisory activities, the University satisfies a wide spectrum of societal needs, especially the general needs of agrarian and Hungarian rural society, as well as the actual economic, social, scientific and cultural needs of the regions surrounding the University's faculties and institutions, thereby also realizing the aim of becoming the center of research in the fields where the University offers educational activities;

   (d) the University endeavours to fill a definitive role in adult and professional training as well, including graduate and postgraduate education, second basic degrees and professional courses;

   (e) based on the earlier activities of the faculties and educational organizational units affected professionally, the University considers as its unique responsibility to train rural intellectuals, to increase the architectural and cultural standards of rural areas and to promote the achievement of middle class status;

   (f) the University carries out its educational and scientific research activities primarily in the fields of natural and environmental sciences, base and basic developed and applied agrarian and technical sciences, veterinary science, food hygiene, horticultural science, applied economics, as well as pedagogy and social sciences;

   (g) in order to meet job market demands and increase opportunities in higher education, the faculties of the University wish to continuously expand the range of departments and divisions, cross-training and cross-learning between faculties, the existing forms of supplementary education and to increase the flexibility of training systems in the future as well;

   (h) the University will extend to all its faculties choices of courses and majors with an increased view to demands and, in order to promote cross-learning between faculties, introduce the application of training requirements based on the credit system and, under the effective law, make it exclusive for all faculties;

   (i) in the future, the faculties of the University, which play an important role in running preparatory courses for admission to higher education, wish to further develop training forms not offering diplomas;

   (j) the University aspires to harness the full range of applications in the key areas of higher education and research in respect of sciences and technology, management and communications, information technology and IT systems, environmental management and sustainable development.

4. In order to fulfil its above-described professional (training, scientific research and professional advisory) responsibilities, Szent István University must develop an organization that enables operation along uniform principles, taking into account the following:

   (a) the autonomy of the faculties can be achieved under central direction and supervision;

   (b) in the institution parts where one faculty performs the educational, scientific research and service responsibilities, the organization of such faculty, while on the Gödöllő Campus, where several faculties operate, the central university organizational units ensure the coordinated provision of education- and research-related economic, technical, IT and administrative tasks, and the services associated with these.

   (5) Szent István University is an institution of higher education that considers rural development an important responsibility and which ensures the basic conditions for expanding higher education in accordance with the demands of the job market based on an extremely wide spectrum of higher (university, college) level training. The University ensures cross-educational opportunities within the institution to its students founded on the cooperation between faculties and the flexible coordination of relevant curricula and training programmes.

   (6) The leaders and educators of Szent István University are committed to performing all their university activities to the best quality. To this end, the faculty of the University is selected, their work is organized, and their educational responsibilities in terms of teaching, research and consulting are performed, and the economic operation of the institution is managed such as to comply with the highest quality standards in every respect.

   For the purposes of defining and systemizing the quality standards and terms of university work and continuously checking their application, the faculty has set up and runs a quality control organization, and they shall ensure regular reviews and evaluations of their activities for quality purposes, on the basis of which they can further develop their performance.