Senate: adoption of the renewed Quality Manual, decisions taken on academic appointments

At the beginning of the meeting, Acting Rector Lajos Szabó presented the assignment letter to Senator Stanley Allen Ward Jr., who joined the body as a representative of Constituency 5 (Institute of Marketing and Communication Sciences) following the recent extraordinary election. 

The first item on the agenda was the adoption of the Corvinus Quality Manual, which embodies Corvinus’ quality management concept. Réka Vas, Vice-Rector for Education said that the 2018 version of the document needed to be updated because in recent years there have been several changes in the structure of the university, including its processes, which also affected their quality assurance aspects. Most of the processes are related to education, and the Education Committee has discussed and supported the document. As the Hungarian Accreditation Committee assesses the university’s operations against the ESG quality assurance standard – their visit is due in May – harmonisation with ESG standards has been clarified in the Manual. The Vice Rector added that the processes described in the manual are already in place at the university, and are integrated into our everyday life.  

Anthony Radev, President of Corvinus, emphasized in his remark that the strategic objective of the university is to develop and operate a quality-oriented and student-centred education system, which requires the definition and application of appropriate quality standards and the monitoring of related processes. He added that data and student feedback from the past years are already available, which will help to continuously improve the quality of services. This approach will be extended and applied to all service areas of the university. 

Regarding the research area, Lajos Szabó pointed out that the university has made huge progress in recent years in terms of the number of publications, and in the next period the focus should be on the quality of publications, and the Manual also provides guidance regarding these internal mechanisms. 

The Senate supported the amendment of the Quality Manual. 

In the second agenda item, a decision on the deletion of the off-site programmes abroad in Miercurea Ciuc (Romania) was taken. The body unanimously supported the removal of these programmes from the Education Authority’s register, as they have not been offered for several years and the university does not intend to continue them in the future. 

In the third item, the Senate discussed HR matters. The body supported the conferral of the title of Professor Emeritus to László Csaba, Professor of the Institute of Economics, a leading figure in Hungarian and European economics, and Péter Medvedev, Professor of the Institute of Data Analytics and Information Systems, a prominent figure in financial mathematics and mathematical research. The body also endorsed the appointment of Robert Faff as Professor Emeritus at the Institute of Finance and CIAS. Professor Faff previously worked at top international universities, held positions as Director of Research and Associate Dean, and has an outstanding publication record in corporate finance and accounting. 

The Senators also decided to renew the membership of the Academic Advisory Board (AAB).  The AAB provides professional support to the Academic Tenure and Promotion Committee (ATPC) in the academic promotion and recruitment process. Its members come from among the internationally renown experts with domestic and foreign experience in higher education in the fields that are taught and in the disciplines in which research is conducted at the University.  Ágnes Zsóka, Vice-Rector for Academic Development, said that some of the Board members’ mandate will be expiring and will need to be renewed, at the same time the intensive promotion and recruitment processes will require an increase in the number of members of the AAB. The proposal recommends the extension of the mandate of 9 former members of the Board and the recruitment of 18 new members, the latter having been recommended by the Heads of the Institute, the Board of Professors, and supported by the ATPC.  

The Senate supported the extension of the membership of the Academic Advisory Board and the new members to be invited: 

Internal members 

1. Prof. Dr. Zoltán Balázs, Full Professor, Institute of Social and Political Sciences- new candidate 

1. Dr. Péter Zoltán Baranyi, Research Professor, CIAS – new candidate 

1. Prof. Dr. István Zsolt Benczes, Full Professor, Institute of Global Studies – new candidate 

1. Prof. Dr. Réka Ágnes Benczes, Full Professor, Institute of Marketing and Communication Sciences – extension 

1. Prof. Dr. Edina Berlinger, Full Professor, Institute of Finance – new candidate 

1. Prof. Dr. Péter Csóka, Full Professor, Institute of Finance – extension 

1. Dr. De Leon Almaraz, Sofia, Associate Professor, Institute of Operations and Decision Sciences- new candidate 

1. Dr Gillman, Max Kenneth, Research Professor, Department of Economics – new candidate 

1. Dr Goodwin, Andrew John Anthony, Research Professor, Institute of Accounting and Law – new candidate 

1. Dr Gorton, Matthew John, Research Professor, Institute of Sustainable Development – new candidate 

1. Prof. Dr. Zsófia Kenesei, Full Professor, Institute of Marketing and Communication Sciences – new candidate 

1. Dr. Péter Marton, Associate Professor, Institute of Global Studies – extension 

1. Prof. Dr. Tamás Mizik, Full Professor, Institute of Sustainable Development- new candidate 

1. Dr. Petsinis, Vasileios, Associate Professor, Institute of Global Studies- new candidate 

1. Prof. Dr. Henriett Primecz, Full Professor, Institute of Strategy and Management – new candidate 

1. Prof. Dr. István Tamás Solymosi, Full Professor, Institute of Operations and Decision Sciences – extension 

External members 

1. Prof. Dr. Bunget, Ovidiu Constantin, Full Professor, FEAA (Faculty of Economics and Business Administration) West University of Timisoara – new candidate 

1. Dr. Dallago, Bruno, Senior Professor, Department of Economics and Management, University of Trento – extension 

1. Prof. Dr. Durfee, Mary H., Professor Emerita, Michigan Technological University – new candidate 

1. Prof. Dr. András Fülöp, Full Professor, ESSEC Business School – new candidate 

1. Prof. Dr. Ims, Knut O. J, Full Professor, Norwegian School of Economics in Bergen – extension 

1. Prof. Dr. MacCarthy, Bart, Full Professor, Nottingham University, Business School – extension 

1. Dr. habil. Bálint Molnár, Associate Professor, ELTE – new candidate 

1. Prof. Dr. Erzsébet N. Rózsa, Professor Emerita, National University of Public Service – extension 

1. Dr. Magdolna Ildikó Sass, Habil. Associate Professor, HUN-REN Research Centre for Economics and Regional Studies, Budapest Business University – new candidate 

1. Prof. Dr. István Tarrósy, Full Professor, University of Pécs – new candidate 

1. Dr Gábor Virág, Associate Professor, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto – extension 

The meeting continued with off-agenda items.  Tünde Tátrai, Chair of the Board of Professors (BP), reported on their 2023 activities. The Board held a number of meetings on matters concerning colleagues, discussing issues of concern to the members of the Board, and directly or indirectly affecting the careers and activities of full professors.  The Chair of the BP highlighted three of these: an introductory event for colleagues who had been awarded the title of full professor, a moderated discussion with invited university colleagues on academic freedom and autonomy, and a personal meeting with the Vice-Rector for Research and the Vice-Rector for Academic Development on the university’s research strategy. Tünde Tátrai added that the Presidium of the BP will continue to promote debates and proposals that constitute added value for the university and convey the opinion of a community that has weight and importance among university citizens.  

At the end of the Senate meeting, Ágnes Zsóka briefly presented the further schedule of the application process for the Rector’s position.  Candidates who do not hold a full professor title at Corvinus University of Budapest must submit an application for full professorship at the same time as the Rector’s application (this will be evaluated by the ATPC), as this is a precondition for becoming Rector. The applications received are first checked by the Board of Trustees for formal compliance. The university community, students and staff will be able to find out about the formally compliant applications via the university’s internal communication platforms. Candidates will also present themselves in person at a staff and student forum, where they will answer questions from university citizens. The ad hoc committee preparing the commenting by the Senate on the applications then submits a proposal to the Senate, with a separate evaluation for each candidate, without ranking. The Senate will also hold an opinion vote on each candidate, the outcome of which will be submitted to the Board of Trustees of the Maintainer for decision-making. 

Following the plenary session, the Senators discussed the indicators and targets of the new Institutional Development Plan in the Faculty Club.