Pázmány Péter Catholic University


Pázmány Péter Catholic University is a private university of the Catholic Church in Hungary, recognized by the state. Founded in 1635, the PPCU is one of Hungary's oldest and most prestigious institutions of higher education.
The Faculty of Theology was established by archbishop Péter Pázmány in Nagyszombat, the Kingdom of Hungary in 1635. The university is located in three 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, around the Esztergom Basilica. The campus of the Faculty of Humanities is in Piliscsaba, in the vicinity of 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.

Rectors

Faculties

The university has five faculties and two institutes.

Faculty of Humanities

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 is in the town of Piliscsaba. 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 campus has a train station and a bus stop ; it is accessible from Budapest centre in less than an hour. Most of its students commute on a daily basis, but it has dormitories for the other students at the venue and in the town.

Faculty of Theology

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 in the name of the Holy See during this time remained, while the diploma was also recognized by the state.
The classical five plus two plus one years Sacred Theology teaching program which is recognized by the Holy See is built on twelve departments:
The departments do research work as part of the Theological Doctorate School. They also do teaching activity within the fields of mission of the Catholic Church. Serving this purpose, the Faculty has Bachelor programs to form Managers of Catholic Communities, Catechetic and Pastoral Assistants; there are also Master programs to form teachers of religion and Catholic Canon lawyers.
When political change happened in Hungary in 1990, the name of the faculty was changed to Pázmány Péter Roman Catholic Theological Academy as an independent university. It became a basis for the new Catholic university of Budapest which has today five flourishing faculties and one institute with faculty rights. Every educational program of this ancient Theological Faculty of the Pázmány Péter Catholic University has received official state accreditation by the Hungarian Higher Educational Accreditation Committee, which has already accredited the entire university, including the Faculty of Theology, twice, most recently in 2010.

Institute of Canon Law

The Institute of Canon Law "ad instar facultatis" was established by the Holy See on 30 November 1996. Canon law means the internal own law of the Catholic Church that applies to everyone baptized in the Catholic Church as well as to those who have joined the community of the Church. According to the ecclesiastical authorization the institute can issue baccalaureate, licenciate and doctorate academic degree in canon law.
The Hungarian State acknowledges the baccalaureate degree in canon law – based on the Bologna-System – as an MA degree, as well as the doctorate in canon law as a Ph.D. The team of professors – Anzelm Szabolcs Szuromi O.Praem., Géza Kuminetz, Péter Szabó, Catherine Hársfai, George Lefkánits, Blazio Schanda, Csaba Szilágyi, and Philippe Gudenus – organize courses in canonical fields in Hungarian and in other languages.
The Institute of Canon Law “ad instar facultatis” undertakes scholarly research. To fulfill this aim the institute organizes a yearly international colloquia every February. It publishes an international canon law review Folia Canonica in the main western European languages, but also a Hungarian review, i.e. Kánonjog ; furthermore, a book series, i.e. Bibliotheca Instituti Postgradualis Iuris Canonici Universitatis Catholicae de Petro Pázmány nominatae, which includes four sub-series.
In 2001 the institute organized the "Eleventh International Congress of the Consociatio Internationalis Studio Iuris Canonici Promovendo and the Fifteenth of the Società per il Diritto delle Chiese Orientali. Also the university Institute of Canon Law hosted the XIIIth International Congress of Medieval Canon Law, which took place in the St. Adalbert Teaching and Research Center of Esztergom in 2008.
The research fields of the faculty are ecclesiastical law; theology of canon law; general norms of canon law; constitutional law of the Church; liturgical law; Catholic marriage law; canonical norms of sacraments and sacramentals; canonical process law; canonical penal law; canon law of Eastern Churches; Medieval ius commune and canon law history.
The institute was decorated with the title of “Doctor Honoris Causa” Urbano Navarrete Cortes S.J. on 2 May 2000, one of the most significant 20th century canon lawyer, who worked for the renewal of the canonical knowledge in Hungary in the Eighties and died on 22 November 2010. The Canon Law Institute was enriched on 5 May 2011 with two new honorary doctors, i.e. José Tomás Martin de Agar and Bronisław Wenanty Zubert OFM.

Faculty of Information Technology and Bionics

The Faculty of Information Technology was established by the Hungarian Catholic Bishops' Conference on 24 June 1998. The government of Hungary accepted it on 20 July 2001. It was renamed to Faculty of Information Technology and Bionics on May 1, 2013, effective as of September 1, 2013. It's located in Budapest.

Faculty of Law and Political Sciences

The Faculty of Law and Political Sciences was established on 3 April 1995. It is located in Budapest.

Vitéz János Faculty of Teaching

The Vitéz János Teaching College was founded on 3 November 1842, and integrated in the Pázmány Péter Catholic University as Vitéz János Faculty on 1 January 2008. It is in the city of Esztergom. The campus is around the Esztergom Basilica. Its Practicing School has been working since 31 August 1893.

Collegium Hungaricum

The Collegium Hungaricum is a house for Hungarian university students, researchers and teachers in the city of Leuven, 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

Hungarian Bionic Vision Center

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.

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Robot Lab

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.

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Ányos Jedlik Research and Development Laboratory

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, 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.

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Biomicrofluidics Research Group

The Biomicrofluidics Research group works on the development of point-of-care diagnostic devices, optofluidic and digital microfluidic platforms. This includes theory, numerical modeling, design, fabrication, test and different applications. Their main area of focus is microfluidic devices for biomedical applications.
The point-of-care diagnostic project focuses on the continuous observation and monitoring of biological liquids, e.g., veterinary or human blood samples.
The integration and interplay between optical and fluidic functionalities defines the emerging field of optofluidics. Microfluidics enables the realization of lab-on-a-chip devices in connection with CNN-UM based camera systems. Thus, the obtained biomedical liquid analyzer can recognize cells and particles in the sample flow in real-time.
The Research Group's digital microfluidic platform is based the electrowetting-on-dielectrics phenomenon; they are working on clinical applications of this. The biological fluid droplets can be moved by electric field on a superhydrophobic surface. Droplet mainulations allow for parallel and multi-reagent analysis.

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Research Centre for Competitive Law

It was established in 2006, at the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences. Its fields are organizing scientific conferences, publishing scientific papers, to spread the culture of competition.

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Syro-Hungarian archeological mission: margat excavations

The Syro-Hungarian Archeological mission is a research programme of the Pázmány Péter Catholic University. Its objective is to restore the Fortress of Margat, which is the largest crusader fortress of the Middle East, and to put under discussion the era of the crusades in the Middle East. The head of the mission is archeologist Balázs Major. The huge, 5.2-acre fortress is related to Hungary not only because of this expedition. In 1218 King Andrew II of Hungary visited the fortress protected by the Johannite Order and contributed an annual sum of 1000 silver marks for its upkeep. According to Balázs Major, "the most sensational discovery must be the mural found in the chapel." This is the largest crusader mural unearthed in the Holy Land, and it is unique from an iconographical aspect, as well.

Avicenna Institute of Middle Eastern Studies

The Avicenna Institute is a non-profit research center with the objectives of promoting scholarship in the field of Middle Eastern studies. In this framework, several senior and junior researchers and fellows are assuming and pursuing those aims. Among the projects are organizing public and international scientific workshops and conferences, publishing scientific monographs, conferences’ proceedings, granting scholarship for junior researches. It has connections with Hungarian and international research centres, such as Pazmany Peter Catholic University, Saint Joseph University, Beirut and Università degli Studi di Napoli "L'Orientale".
The institute was founded to conduct research for an understanding of Arabic, Persian and Turkish cultures; to advise decision-makers, media-actors and businessmen interested in Middle-East issues; to disseminate knowledge on current topics in on-going public debates to avoid misunderstandings in intercultural dialogue.
The institute works on several projects:

Honorary doctors

Pázmány alumni number 26,000.