Although Corvinus University of Budapest has recently been given its name, it is an all the more significant institution in Hungarian higher education due to its traditions and the results it has achieved in education and research. As a result of an integration process going on during the past few years, the Budapest University of Economic Sciences and the College of Public Administration merged in 2000. The faculties of the former University of Horticulture and Food Industry, the traditions of which go back to one and a half centuries, joined the institution in September 2003. The Academic Year Opening Ceremony in 2004 was also a name-giving ceremony. In virtue of the resolution adopted by the Hungarian Parliament, we took on the collectively accepted name "Corvinus University of Budapest" as of September 1 of that year. This name reflects a humanist institution that brings together several disciplines from social sciences to natural sciences. It willingly undertakes the human-, science- and culture-centered traditions and values appropriate to a university. Recalling the world of Renaissance, it focuses on refinement, richness in detail, variegation and creating value.

The scholars of the three predecessor institutions working in different disciplines have agreed to join forces for shaping our knowledge-based society where we have to present and exploit those elements of the knowledge mass, which reinforce each other and - due to the different approaches - may lead to new research results and can provide a unique offer on the educational palette. However on May 1, 2004 Hungary joined the European Union and since that day the competition has already been going on in foreign grounds as well. We have to prepare ourselves for European quality and accreditation in order to prove the international competitiveness of our degrees and to become attractive not only for local but also for foreign students from our region and from farther countries as well.

We have to prove the high level of the new degree system introduced in 2006 in the framework of the European higher education reform and our indispensable research capabilities have to be exploited in a more concentrated way than today. Our excellent infrastructure in information technology has to keep up with the fast-developing technology. We have high hopes in our campus development plans according to which in September 2007 we can occupy the new university building with an area of 23,000 m2, which will provide the University's Central Library with an adequate location and will assure the necessary classrooms for our constantly expanding educational activity. We strive to further expand our traditionally excellent cooperation with the business sector through joint research and development projects and by involving external experts and executives in education even more intensively and on a larger scale. We believe that these relations can play an important role not only in everyday operation and in financing long-term development but can also significantly contribute to our students' fast integration into the labor market.

Internationalisation: relations, curriculum, environment, students
Corvinus University of Budapest holds membership in major organizations and associations of European universities as well as in associations outside Europe. Corvinus University of Budapest is a member of CEMS (the “elite group” of the Community of European Management Schools) and it was also accepted to the PIM (Program in International Management) which is an exclusive worldwide organization of business schools.

Courses taught in foreign languages have extraordinary importance in the international relations, as the University’s extensive foreign relations are based on these programs. Corvinus University of Budapest offers courses taught in English, German and French. Faculty of Business Administration International Study Programs has developed courses taught in English to enable students to receive BA or MSc degrees. As a result of the development of the German program (Deutschsprachiger Studiengang in Betriebswirtschaftlehre), it has become a double-degree program with the University of Passau. A very important element of internationalization is the University’s conscious strategy concerning training provided outside Hungary, in areas of Hungarian minority communities close to our borders. Corvinus University of Budapest is an active participant of the EU-financed programs (Erasmus, Erasmus Mundus, Jean Monnet), which enable research, mobility, curriculum development, intensive programs and internships.